Legend
by Spades813
Summary: Their world is dying, headed for Hell. And under misfortune events, Roxas is plunged into a war he doesn't believe in. But much like an old folk legend, Roxas unwillingly becomes the last shred of hope in peoples hearts. He will do whatever he can to save the world and the people in it, good or bad. He is legend. YAOI AkuRoku and loads of Adventure! (More pairings inside)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey people first fanfic ever! I'm siked! Okay let's get started then, Enjoy!**

**Warning: This contains YAOI, meaning BOYXBOY. Don't like don't read. This story will contain cursing, sexual scenes, bloody fighting scenes and much much more! So that's why it's rated M.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters! I wish I did, but sadly I don't. The only thing I own is this plot.**

"_Tell the story again, pleeease," A young boy with blonde hair and blue eyes asked his grandfather._

_His Grandfather smiled, "Alright, alright. But then it's off to bed,"_

_The two siblings cheered. The other sibling was a couple minutes older (the two boys were twins) and had brown hair unlike his younger brother, but had sort of similar blue eyes like his younger brother. The older one name was 'Sora'. And the younger twin's name was 'Roxas'. They also had another sibling with blonde hair and blue eyes but he was seven years older than them._

_The man chuckled at his six year old grandson's excitement, "Ok let's begin. This is the shorter version. _

_Long ago there was something called 'the great war'. King Xehanort of the Malo Kingdom believed he was the owner of our world. And he would destroy anything to prove it. It was him and his Kingdom against the other thirteen countries. _

_Something called the 'allies' -which is what we call the other thirteen countries, were winning for a while. But one day Xehanort attacked the Kingdom of Lucemspero-"_

"_Isn't that where we live?" Sora interrupted, cocking his head to the side slightly. His Grandfather nodded._

"_Anyways. One day Xehanort sent many demons, monsters, and other horrible creatures on boats, and from the sky to attack Lucemspero. In the outcome of it, Lucemspero became very weak and Xehanort was then able to take over the remaining twelve Kingdoms. _

_But, the King of Lucemspero still fought back. After many years the war ended. The outcome was depressing; the courageous King of the Lucemspero Kingdom was struck down. From the King's sacrifice though, we were able to beat Xehanort. Xehanort now waits in his castle in the forbidden lands of the Malo Kingdom, seeking his revenge. _

_Like many of us, Xehanort has heard of the great legend. The legends that there will be a child born with the powers to rule the world and have it walk in the light. The child is a threat to Xehanort so he searches for them daily. Obviously, Xehanort can't be human himself. After all, he has somehow been alive for centuries._

_Xehanort swears he will find the child and steal what he thinks is his. He is a very ruthless man. But the child is supposed to stop him, and hopefully they do. What is supposed to happen is the other twelve countries, the 'allies'- are supposed to destroy themselves. The world will be filled with greed and anger- headed for hell. And all hope will be gone. But the child is supposed to help people gain hope once again they will fill everyone's hearts with hope and hopefully stop the Kingdoms fighting amongst themselves. This is why the child is a threat to Xehanort. Because Xehanort won't conquer the world until everyone has given up._

_So remember, even when the world seems most bleak, keep hope. Because where there is darkness, there is light. And that is what will save us in the end. The hero will awaken when we most need them,"_ _he finished his brief summary of the long detailed legend. The man knew he left out so many parts of the legend, but they were just children. There would be time for him to tell them the more gruesome version when they turn older. He would then be able to tell them all about the Hyacintho Divus and what it did for the world. _

_For now the two boys could sleep in peace._

**10 years later (Present Day)**

Roxas jumped awake after his dream. It was actually a memory, in a dream. He panted, grasping at his hair. Swallowing deep, while beads of cold sweat slid down his forehead. He tried to remember his dream clearly. But he couldn't.

The blonde sighed, so much had changed. It was like what his Grandpa said would happen in the legend- was happening. Roxas's, Sora's, and Cloud's (their twenty three year old older brother) parents were dead. Everyone was dead. Cloud tried the best he could to take care of them, stepping up to the plate to take care of them like a parent. Roxas felt bad for Cloud, he had a huge burden on his shoulders.

Rubbing his face groggily, the blonde stood from his bed. He stretched his aching bones from sleeping on the terrible mattress. Wiping off his forehead with his sleeve, he looked out his window at the Kingdom of Potentia and its vast plains. Such a beautiful sight. A beautiful sight in not such a beautiful world. An imperfect world.

Roxas grumbled to himself in irritation. He really needed to stop sleeping the days away.

But as Sora always said, 'another day, another dollar'.

xxXXXXXxxxxx

There were fourteen countries in all. The Flamma country, the Liquidum country, the Tellus country, the Spiritus country, the Flos country, the Fulmen country, the Malo country, the Quo country, the Gelus country, the Potentia country, the Praestigiae country, the Luna country, the Ludunt country, and the Lumcemspero country. Roxas, Sora, and Cloud were from the fallen country of Lumcemspero. When the Kingdom was falling the three brothers quickly escaped to the Potentia country. But to their dismay the Potentia Kingdom was and currently was on the verge of falling. Roxas doesn't really know much about the other countries or who the Kings were though. But Roxas had been living in the Potentia Kingdom ever since his parents died when he was ten years old. But the Potentia kingdom was poor and dying too. In a way the Potentia King was greedy, he didn't care about the citizens of his Kingdom as long as he was satisfied.

Roxas and his brother Sora were beggars; they pleaded people for money so they could have money to live. Roxas never told Sora or his other brother Cloud that he stole from people though. But Roxas would only steal things from food from markets, pick pocketing, some break in's but not many. It was how they survived. He didn't pick pocket because he wanted to. He had to.

Their life was shitty and Roxas wanted a change. They all did. And their wish would come true sure enough.

XXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxx

"Oi, Roxas! Go outside to the well and get some water for dinner!" Sora called to his younger twin brother from the fireplace, Roxas groaned and put down his book and walked over to the door. Why couldn't Sora do it himself? Pulling on his black hoodie, the blonde opened the door and was met with the crisp cold air of fall. At night the Kingdom of Potentia was a quiet one. The dirt patched roads were mostly empty except for the couple of homeless beggars.

Passing a beggar Roxas knew to be Zack, he smiled at Roxas "Spare some change for an old beggar like me, Roxas?" Zack asked the blonde, smiling radiantly. The smaller boy smiled down at the blackette and shook his head, "Zack, you know I would if I could but seeing as how I'm a beggar too and I make as little as you, I can't," Roxas told him, looking honestly sorry, as the blonde dug his hands in to his own hoodie's pockets.

Zack frowned but regained his radiant smile immediately, "Maybe you should steal from the King, you're too good of a thief to get caught," Zack replied, dead serious. The blue eyed blonde smirked, "You flatter me but, I like my head attached to my shoulders," Roxas said and walked away.

After walking down some dirt and cobblestone roads he arrived at town square- where the well, with the dirty but drinkable water was. He fetched a pail, and then he trudged back home.

Opening the door to, Sora's, his, and Clouds little hut- the blonde called, "Sora! I got the water!" The older of the twins heard and replied, "Ok, bring it in the kitchen." So Roxas walked into the kitchen area which was opened to the living room and gave the water to his older brother. Sora smiled and then muttered a 'thanks' as he took the bucket. Walking over to the little table the blonde pulled out a small wooden chair, "When do you think Cloud is getting back from the stables?" Roxas asked his twin brother. Sora shrugged and replied, "I don't know".

Dinner was same old same old, but Cloud eventually came home- smelling like manure.

Roxas was currently wallowing away in bed. It was late out at night. But he kept thinking about what Zack said earlier that day, what if Roxas did steal from the King? The blonde could climb any building like nothing and had unbelievable stealth. But what if he got caught and died? Roxas and his brothers could leave that wretched place if he succeeded though. He sighed, Cloud wasn't making enough money and Sora's begging didn't get them enough money. It was always Roxas's pick pocketing that got them through. If he were to get caught and die, then Cloud and Sora- wouldn't make it. Roxas turned on his side towards the wall, and hoped he could get some sleep.

That was what he found was easiest. Sleeping away the days. Escaping into better dreams.

Escaping the real world.

XXxxxxxxXXXXXxx

It was early morning and Roxas awoke with a giant crick in his neck. The makeshift mattress always did terrible things to his frame during his sleep.

He yawned as he walked into the small kitchen/dining/living room. The tiny shack of a home was only four very small rooms. Each bedroom only had enough room for a puny bed and a trunk or dresser. You just had to slide in.

The kitchen/dining/living room had enough space for a black decaying couch, a beaten coffee table, a fireplace where most of the cooking was done, and a table to eat at and cut vegetables or meat.

The blonde was met with his older twin brother tending to the fire. The brunette was currently feeding the fire and poking it. Their brother, Cloud was sitting on the couch- looking at nothing but looking concerned and in deep thought. "Morning," Roxas voiced. Sora looked up from the fire and smiled in response. Cloud just hummed. The younger blonde sighed and went to sit down next to his older brother, Cloud. "Roxas?" Sora asked.

"Yeah Sor?"

"I made tea, want some?" Sora inquired.

Roxas smiled, "Yes please," he responded.

The brunette nodded and stood up. He walked over to the table that had a large pot sitting on top of it and a box of random mitch- match silverware, clay plates, clay bowls, and clay mugs. The older twin pulled out a cracked and repasted mug and set it on the table. Next he took out a metal ladle and dipped it in the pot and put scoop fills into the mug. After setting down the ladle on the table he walked over to Roxas and handed the mug over. The blonde took it gratefully and looked into the cup. It looked like light brown water with a few ground up herbs. In no time flat he drank all of the tea.

Later that morning Sora prepared them their bread and eggs breakfast. Sora was the only one who really knew how to cook. The three brothers ate their meal in silence. Cloud retired to his bedroom and Sora went out to the market with a few shillings in hand. So that left Roxas all alone.

Deciding not to be in the house all day, Roxas grabbed his black cloak and headed outside.

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The blonde sat on the dirty ground of a market street. Conveniently enough, Roxas was able to grab a spot right outside the jewelry shop where the richer folks went. Purposely, he smeared mud on his face, ruffled up his hair, dirtied his clothes, and made his eyes watery. You had to look the part.

As afternoon set in, shoppers began filling in. And other beggars on the street glared at Roxas for having the best pitiful look to him and the best shop. Because women were the ones who went to jewelry shops. Rich women, with more emotion than rich men. Rich women would always dot on him when he gave them that kicked puppy look.

A particularly fine lady strode towards the jewelry shop and the blonde made his move. Couldn't let the customers get in the stores first; they would spend all of their money. Their money that could go into Roxas's pockets instead.

The lady in red eyed him as she walked to the door of the little shop. "Excuse me," Roxas spoke up, voice sounding hoarse a pathetic. "Might you spare some change? You see my brother needs medicine and my parents are away for a while, please might you give me a few shillings? I can even run an errand for you," he spoke softly, making his eyes look teary and puffy. His bottom lip quivered slightly as he spoke. Honestly, Roxas lied about the whole brother and parent's thing. But that was how you hooked them. It wasn't wrong necessarily; the girl was rich and had five fat diamond rings on each finger. She had a lot of money obviously; it wouldn't kill her to spare some to an unfortunate soul.

The women looked at him like she was about to cry too, "Of course I will!" she nearly shouted as she dug through her periwinkle purse. She pulled out two gold coins and five shillings and handed them to Roxas. They fell into his hand and he looked at them with wide eyes. That was a lot more money he got than usual. He sprang up and smiled brightly, tears gone, a hundred watt smile, and eyes wide, "Thank you so much mam!" he laughed cheerfully and ran down the street with coins in hand. When Roxas reached the end of the street and turned the corner he pocketed the coins.

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. Such a nice lady. It wasn't often that you would find people like that. Roxas felt bad for making a sucker out of someone so kind.

Usually when he did the pity act, the people would glare at him and give him maybe as much as two shillings. They only gave him money when he did that to show they have money to spare and that their not heartless. Roxas hated how rich people would give beggars money even though they didn't care about them. Beggars were just their charity act. But that lady was different. And for that, the blonde was thankful.

xxXXXXXXXXXxxxxx

It was a bit chilly, but not too cold. He happily whistled a tune to himself as he walked down the cobble stone and dirt paths, coins jingling in his pockets noisily. After a while of doing begging, night fell. Guards were patrolling all around for suspicious activity. Most people retired at that time of night to avoid interrogations from guards under false accusing.

As he walked, he let his thoughts drift to dangerous ground. _'Maybe you should steal from the King, you're too good of a thief to get caught,' Zack's_ voice bounced around the blonde's head like a Ping-Pong ball. He sighed. The blonde could do it, he could do it. And when he succeeded- he and his brothers could have a better life.

He sighed. Every time he had ever tried stealing from the castle, he got caught and had to run away to escape though. He never got thrown in jail; he just had to sprint fast away. But this time he may succeed, or he might fail. First time for everything, right?

The blonde pulled his hood up to cover his face and started to hastily speed walk through alley ways so he wouldn't be seen. The goal was for absolutely no one to him, that way they could never prove he was out and about during the crime.

Roxas broke into a sprint and climbed up a two story house fire escape. His hands gripped the cool metal bars as he climbed up to the roof. Once Roxas was on the roof he stood straight and took in all his surroundings. He slowly breathed in the air, the wind combing through his hair. He breathed in deep and sighed it out. Just taking a moment to breathe.

Quickly Roxas darted and hopped from roof top to roof top. It felt like a leap of death. Finally Roxas arrived near the castle gates, which were heavily guarded and spotlights searching for thugs were everywhere. Roxas crouched farther down by the dumpster he was hiding behind. How was he going to do it? Secret passage ways always worked best when trying to get into the castle grounds. The gates were too heavily guarded to scale. Not to mention the barbed wire.

Secret passage way it was.

After a short amount of time of looking, Roxas found the small decaying shack. The windows of the shack were shattered, the door kicked in, the walls peeling. And it had a foul stench of blood.

The blonde carefully walked in and made sure not to step on any broken shards of glass. He successfully located the trap door in the middle of the floor and heaved it open. He eyed the dark hole filled with cobwebs, and rats alike. Roxas held his breath and squatted down at the edge of the hole, he took a shaky breath, closed his eyes, and let go. With his arms not supporting his weight anymore, he fell into the hole. Roxas landed awkwardly on the floor of the passage. The blonde stood and walked mindlessly in the dark for a while until he saw torches, he took one and kept moving. He was surprised the guards never thought to cover up the passage.

The passage was for if an emergency ever happened and the King needed to get out of the castle without being seen.

Roxas had been in that passage way too many times to count- so naturally he memorized the tunnels. He was cold, with the light provided he could see his breath with each breath he exhaled. Possibly because it was early fall, underground was a lot colder? That was the only excuse he could think of.

Eventually he got at the end of the tunnel where a big boulder lay. He blew out his torch and sat it on the dirty ground. Then he struggled to push the boulder. Gritting his teeth, he pushed on the boulder with all of his might. It rolled away only enough for him to barely slip through. A sliver of light came from on the other side of the boulder and he slipped through, his boot almost getting caught between the boulder and wall. But he made it to the other side. On the other side was some sort of underground plumbing. Leaky ancient pipes lined the stoned walls everywhere. Guards never went down there luckily. He looked up at the ceiling and found a sewer lid at the top. Putting his hand on a cold pipe he heaved upwards and climbed the pipes. There was no telling when a pipe might bust though from him being on it. And then servants would come to fix it. The rest would all go downhill. He heaved himself up carefully, losing his footing a couple times but regained himself. Eventually he made it to the top. During the process though, the pipes dripped water on him and now he felt like an icicle.

With a shaky breath, Roxas pushed up on the lid and it moved aside with ease. The lid was only slightly ajar so he peeked through the little opening. Roxas couldn't hear anyone, or see anyone. Hopefully the coast was clear.

Cautiously he hoisted himself out of the hole and into a beautiful garden full of roses, lilies, and things of that nature. The lid laid right next to a gigantic fountain. The blonde slid the lid onto its place on the hole and looked around, no guards on that side of the castle.

After making sure it was completely clear, Roxas dove from hedge to hedge until he was met with the castle wall. The blonde used nooks and crannies in the big grey bricked building as an advantage to climb. Roxas reached a balcony and silently climbed into it; he tiptoed to the glass doors and peered in past the see through drapes.

No one was in the room, but someone could be soon. Hurriedly he took out a small dagger. He admired the beauty of the carved dagger and smiled at it. It used to be his father's. Roxas's smile faded at remembering his dead father. Shaking it off, the blonde went to work on picking the lock; he heard a satisfying 'click' and the lock let up. Roxas opened the door slightly, poked his head in, looked around, and listened intently. Not seeing anything, or hearing anything- he strode in. Looking around, he found that the room was grand and gorgeously furnished maybe that room would do. The blonde's objective was to reach the Kings bedroom and steal the riches it held. But, this room could offer what he needed too. The King's bedroom was a lot more risky. Not to mention it was at the very top of the castle.

The blonde opened the wardrobe and was only met with garments. Being in the castle made him feel extremely uneasy, he wanted to find something and get out. As soon as possible.

Roxas next moved on to the jurors and was delighted to find a pouch of silver and gold coins. His brilliant smile lit up and he pocketed it inside his cloak.

The blonde went through a couple more jurors and found rings with jewels in them and just spare jewels. Whoever was staying in that room must have been an important guest.

xxxxXXXXXxxxx

Surprisingly Roxas made it out of the castle and through the passageway and back to his home with no problem. That was the first successful 'run'; Roxas had ever had to the castle. The blonde's triumphant smile widened when he saw his old friend Zack, "Hey Zack," Roxas whispered. Said man looked up and smiled, "Hey Roxas, whatcha want?" the blackett asked, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion from where he sat on the dirt ground. Roxas plopped himself next to his friend on the ground. Roxas looked up at the sky and smiled, "Well, I- uh-, I went to the castle," he stuttered. Zacks eyes widened with fear and excitement, "What happened?!" the blackette whispered feverishly. The blonde dug into his pockets and pulled out a couple red, blue, and green gems. Zacks eyes got even wider, "No way!" he said excitedly.

"Way. Here," Roxas dumped the gems into Zack's hand. The blonde had plenty more, no reason to be greedy. The blackette beamed and yanked Roxas into a bone crushing hug, "You don't know how much this means to me!" Zack cried happily into Roxas's shoulder. The blonde smiled, "I know," the blonde patted Zack's back, "I gotta go or Cloud will kill me though." The blackette nodded and pulled away. Roxas stood and began to walk away, "You can crash on our couch whenever you want you know," the blonde called over his shoulder. Zack smiled. He didn't want to be a burden though.

Roxas disappeared around the corner and went to his hut, leaving behind a very rich and grateful Zack.

xxxxXXXXXXXXxxxxXXXXxx

Roxas shot awake with hearing screams- lots of them. Jumping out of bed, he flung his bedroom door open and called out for his two older brothers. The blonde was met with their entire hut burning like paper. The smoke reached Roxas's nostrils and he started to cough but managed to scream, "Sora! Cloud! Where are you?!" but Roxas got no answer. What happened? Never mind that, he had to find his brothers. Quick.

It seemed like Roxas's room was the only room not consumed by the fire. Which he found odd. But he didn't have time to think about it. Roxas knew that they always said to 'not grab belongings when there is a fire'. But Roxas just thought to hell with that. He went back into his room- rather rushed at that. Who wouldn't be? Picking up his dirt stained black cloak, he put it on. Next thing the blonde did was go into his leather trunk and grabbed a blue stoned amulet that Cloud said their father had left to him, he pocketed the money and gems he stole from the castle a few hours before also. He then took out a picture of his now dead parents holding his oldest brother Cloud, himself, and then his older twin brother Sora from his trunk. Gazing at the picture sadly, he shook his head and quickly continued what he was doing.

Roxas quickly put the amulet around his neck and jammed the picture into his tan cargo pants pocket. Pajamas don't really exist to him. Roxas grabbed the hood of his cloak and pulled it over his head. The blonde was ready.

He flung his door open and shot out of his room in a blind panic. The flames blocking his way to his other brothers small bedrooms. Roxas eyed the flames; there was no way to get through. The ceiling started crackling- no doubt about to collapse from the flames. The blonde clenched his fist, closed his eyes tight, and dove through the wall of flames blocking the other two bedrooms. To Roxas's surprise he was completely unharmed. He blinked confusedly. Maybe the amulet had an enchantment on it? That was all Roxas could think of as an excuse at the moment. It was not uncommon in that world for magic to exist, just look at the great legend that spewed from storytellers mouths.

Roxas kicked his brother Sora's door open to see the brunette- very much alive and panicked. Roxas smiled and let out a sigh of relief, as he grabbed his scared twin brother's wrist and pulled him out the room. Sora started to hesitate though, and Roxas looked back to see what was wrong, "Roxas my stuff!' Sora squealed. Roxas snapped, "No Sora we have to find Cloud and get out! I already saved a picture of mom and dad so let's leave!" Sora bit his lip and grabbed a royal blue hoodie and followed as directed.

They made their way to Cloud's bedroom and Roxas flew the door open looking around for Cloud. But there were no signs of their older brother. A tear fell down both of the twins faces. Though for Sora, it was more like a flood. The blonde glared at the empty room and grabbed his brother once again. The wall of flames from before blocking their exit. Sora cried harder. Roxas quickly pulled his necklace off, and instead took Sora's and his arm and put it through the chain. Sora looked to his younger brother in wonder, but Roxas just dove through the flames, dragging Sora with him. Sora let out a startled cry though at the craziness of it all. But once they went through the flames unscathed he just became puzzled like Roxas was.

XxxxxxXXXx

They managed to escape the house safe and sound, right before the hut burnt to the ground. But as soon as they got to outside, the twins saw that the whole entire Kingdom was on fire. It was complete chaos. Men, women, children running down the streets- fleeting from the soldiers in black coats- there was no mistaking it, the soldiers were from the Kingdom of Malo. Seeing as how the Kingdom of Malo's flag was black. Sora's and Roxas's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates in fear at seeing screaming people, dead people, and most of all the demons tearing off people's heads and the big black scaled dragons in the sky- setting the whole place on fire. The stench of smoke, death, decay, and the metallic smell of blood assaulted their noses.

Sora let out a whimper, but Roxas just grit his teeth and put his arm around Sora's torso, and the brunette put his arm around Roxas's shoulder as they bolted towards the woods that remained untouched from flames. They ran down hills, up hills, through alleyways- all sorts of things.

Until, just to their luck a soldier came after them- sword high in the air. Sora cried harder as Roxas looked around for something, anything.

The blonde thankfully found a sword in its sheathe next to a dead man down the street.

The blonde made Sora pick up the pace as they ran ahead of the soldier chasing them. Roxas let go of Sora and quickly grabbed the sword holder and slipped it over one shoulder, the leather strap of it going across the blonde's torso- like a satchel would. Roxas quickly took their arms out of the amulet's chain and put the amulet over Sora's head. Roxas really hoped that there was an enchantment on it to keep them safe. Sora moved behind Roxas as the blonde pulled the heavy metal sword out of its sheath. Could he even fight?Roxas thought to himself as he stared at the sword. But it was too late to second guess it.

Roxas hoisted the sword up and spread his legs apart and got in a fighting stance. The grizzly soldier came at the young blonde- screaming and twirling his own blade. Roxas quickly swept the blade in an arc motion to block the overhead down cut attack. The blonde quickly twisted his blade making the others twist to, giving Roxas just enough time to jump back. The other man growled as Roxas smirked. The soldier's eyes landed on Sora, who was cowering behind Roxas. Roxas knew exactly what the man was going to do. The soldier, clad in black lunged towards Sora. Sora cringed and puts his arms up in defense. But Roxas quickly dove and crouched down; putting his arms all the way out and blocked it. The man glared at him, but Roxas glared at him with threatening eyes.

But then all Roxas's self-confidence vanished when the man swung his boot into the blonde's side. Roxas fell to the ground at the soldier's feet; he lay on his back, looking up at the man with wide eyes. The soldier smirked down at Roxas and brought his sword up and imitated slicing down. The man sliced downward with force at the blonde's heart, but the blonde regained his senses and rolled quickly out of the way.

The man's sword ended up getting stuck into the dirt with a 'thunk'. As the soldier struggled to get his sword out of the ground, Roxas shot to his feet and returned to his battle stance. Roxas heatedly glared at the man. The older one of the two growled and out of blind fury swung repeatedly at Roxas's head. But Roxas knew that the man had a rather heavy sword, so his advantage was speed. As soon as the soldier swung at Roxas downward in an arc motion, taking some time to lift up the blade again to try again. Roxas took that opportunity to swing his sword down into the man's shoulder. The soldier yelped and dropped his sword to grasp his now heavily bleeding shoulder.

Roxas wasted no time in grabbing Sora and running for their lives. The black dragons overhead spouting fire everywhere to the point they were almost engulfed in flames.

The soldier from before charged at Roxas from behind with a want for vengeance in his eyes. Roxas let Sora run ahead, and in one fluid motion- pulled his sword out and quickly swung it back and slit the man's throat. Roxas's eyes widened in fear as he watched the soldier crumple to the ground, dribbles of red rubies spilling from the man's neck. Roxas shakily, looked at his sword, his sword that had blood smeared on it. The blonde quickly collected himself and flicked the blood off the sword and sheathed it. He turned back around to where Sora ran and saw Sora gaping at him like a fish- at a loss of words. The blonde was really hoping his brother didn't see that.

Roxas glared and knelt down to the dead man and took the soldiers sword and sheath- Roxas handed the sword and sheath to Sora. Sora hesitantly took it and put it on. Roxas's eyes turned hard as he grabbed his older brother's shoulder as they ran into the woods leaving the Kingdom behind. In one night Roxas lost everything he knew, they lost their older brother, their home, and Roxas killed a man. The blonde kept pulling the brunette along though. Sora couldn't help but look back as they ran. But Roxas refused to ever look back.

xxxxxXXXxxxx

**A/N: Put the guns down! Cloud's not dead! That's a no brainer there; we will see what happened to him laterrrrrr. Kay.**

**Woo! Big! Big plans for this story! And just to let you know so no one gets confused, the kingdoms/countries are elements and things in Latin. So here's this so no one gets confused. Also keep in mind that these elements are basically like what the members of organization XIII control with a few added. But as an example say, Demyx, he controls water. Just because he controls water doesn't mean he will be the king of Liquidum. And say Terra, just because he's like Earth, doesn't mean he will be the king of Tellus. M'kay? Kay. Alright thanks for reading and REVIEW PLEASE.**

**IMPORTANT: I will update every Friday! Sound reasonable?**

** Flamma = Fire**

** Liquidum = Water**

** Tellus = Earth**

** Spiritus= Wind**

** Flos= Flower**

** Fulmen= Lightning**

** Malo= Evil**

** Quo= Time**

** Gelus= Ice**

** Potentia= Power**

** Praestigiae= illusion**

** Luna= Moon**

** Ludunt= Gamble**

** Lucemspero= Light and Hope**

**Thanks! Again! And sorry if this chapter sucked but stick around for more and then decide if you like it please. Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here is the next chapter early! I got a review and was really happy (I know a lot of people have way more reviews than that but, this is my first time posting a story I wrote and I am so happy someone liked it)! Thank you to that person. I got an idea, since people have questions and such I will write their name at the end of the chapters and then write my answer next to their name-therefore answering their question. I also think putting this chapter up early will grab the attention more, instead of one chapter up until next Friday. So putting this up early gives you more of an idea of where the story is sort of headed? Yeah I think so.**

**Warning: YAOI, boyxboy. Dont like, dont read. Sexual scenes, bloody fighting scenes, and cursing.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly I DON'T own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters….if I did there would be yaoi. The thing I do own is the plot of 'Legend'.**

**Thank you and enjoy! (This chap is kind of uneventful but, next chapter makes up for it.)**

**Chapter 2: Fate?**

Morning came, and the forest was still beautiful like the horrors of last night never happened. Sora panted, "Roxas can we take a break? I'm tired," Sora whined. Roxas sighed, rolling his eyes, "No Sora, we can't take a break. For the millionth time, we don't have any food we have to get somewhere quick before we die of hunger," the blonde explained. Sora threw his head back and groaned, but nonetheless trudged along after his twin.

About an hour later the brunette whispered, "Roxas...do you, hear that?" Roxas was about to turn around and ask what the hell his brother was talking about when, Roxas too, heard metal clanking. Sora and Roxas went to have a closer look when they spotted what looked to be soldiers, definitely soldiers in metal armor and blood red accessories. Flamma. Soldiers from the Flamma Kingdom, seeing as how blood red was their flag color. But much to Roxas's dismay- idiot Sora let out a squeak, immediately the soldiers- about five, halted and turned to where the blonde and brunette were hiding. A blonde man leading the soldiers at the front, sitting on top of what looked to be a white horse, glared at the bush that Roxas and Sora were hiding in. The blonde ducked down as fast as he could and gulped, while Sora shook like a leaf.

A booming voice roared from the men "If you don't come out now I will throw my sword into the blonde one's head, I can see you and I got a clear shot," the voice said. Sora snapped his head to look at his younger brother. It took every bit of energy out of Roxas to stand up revealing himself from the bush. Life just sucked like that sometimes Roxas guessed. But honestly Roxas had no idea that him and Sora traveled so far that they were in Flamma territory. Roxas looked to all the men, who were pointing swords at him. The blonde hopped off his white horse and made his way over to Roxas. The blonde took note that the older blonde must have been wealthy or important, judging by the man's attire. Clean brown trousers, big black shiny buckled boots, a white- long sleeved button up shirt, and accompanied by a blood red thick jacket, armor pulling together the entire appearance. Just by looking at the man, you knew that he had authority. "What Kingdom are you from?" the man with the blonde hair, a blonde goatee, and aqua eyes, asked Roxas.

"I'm from the Kingdom of Potentia," Roxas answered truthfully. No point in lying, right? The man hummed in response, "Name?" the man asked. "Roxas" the blonde answered, somewhat confident. The man nodded, "I am General Luxord, I will need to take you with me," the man said.

Roxas glared. Shit.

xxXXXXxxxxxXXxxxxXXXxxx

Roxas and Sora were stripped of their weapons, shackled, and loaded into the wagon by four of the soldiers. Of course Roxas didn't go down without a fight but that just seemed to make the men angrier with him. So currently he and his older brother were sitting in the wagon that was being carried along by two horses. 

"Don't mean to be a pillock, tis just procedure under King Axel's command," the General piped up as he strolled next to the moving wagon. The twins looked up at the man, Sora nervously smiled and nodded- while Roxas gave a full blown death glare.

XxxxxXXXxxx

The cart continued on and during that time, Sora fell asleep. Roxas was exhausted too but, he couldn't just fall asleep for even a second- what if the soldiers tried something? Sure General Luxord seemed nice enough and trustworthy- he just had that kind of vibe, and Roxas was an insightful person. Something about Luxord made an easy feeling set in the pit of his stomach- but Roxas still had to keep his guard up for Sora's sake. The blonde may be younger than Sora, but the brunette had such a kind and innocent heart that the brunette, never in a million years could ever have the heart to fight or hurt- rather or kill someone. So for now, Roxas would have to play the 'strong, protective, big brother' role.

The blonde smiled and looked down at his sleeping twin- who was laying his head down in Roxas's lap, silently snoring. Despite their current situation, Sora looked so peaceful.

Roxas felt peaceful too after looking at Sora. His eyes started to close when,

'SNAP.'

Now he was alert, Roxas held Sora closer to him and began looking around. The five in all soldiers in red marched by the creaky wagon like usual. But something was amiss. Roxas stared blankly at nothing, his ears looking for any sort of noise that wasn't from the soldiers. And then he heard it.

More snaps and rustling of bushes. Thugs, animals, murderers- it could be any one of those. Then the blonde saw a couple of mangy looking people in the bushes, the glint of light hitting the people's weapons made Roxas's eyes widened. Not an animal, definitely not an animal. The blonde panicked, he was shackled and so was Sora. His and his brother's life rested in how well the soldiers could fight. And if the soldiers lost, the thugs would surely kill the twins. Or worse. Roxas gulped.

Better give heads up if his life was in another man's hands. "General Luxord," Roxas spoke up, clearing his throat. The man with a short blonde hair and a blond goatee turned around and walked alongside where Roxas sat in the moving wagon. "Yes?" the man inquired. "There are thugs in the bushes. Ambush," Roxas whispered, leaning towards the General, speaking in a low tone. The General nodded and started to scour the woods with a focused gaze. He continued to look through the forest and then his eyes narrowed when he saw the thugs. Luxord cleared his throat, "I think the prisoners need to be attending to," he spoke. Wait, what? Roxas's eyes widened in fear. But then the blonde tried to understand what was going on, so he watched. The five soldiers understood and got out their weapons, Roxas hugged Sora closer to him. The blonde would protect his only family that he had left, at any cost. Luxord winked at Roxas, the younger blonde returned it with a confused glance, "We should be there by three o'clock," the general estimated calmly, taking out his own sword. How could they guess the time it would take? Oh, now Roxas got it-three o'clock was the direction the thugs were following them at. And maybe 'the prisoners need attending to' meant 'ambush'? One could hope. The General turned to Roxas, "Can I trust you, to use a sword and not turn on us?" he asked. The younger two of the blondes looked down to his older brother who was sleeping silently. "You turn on us and you both die. Sorry but that's how it works," Luxord explained. Roxas nodded,

"You have my word," For Sora. It was for Sora. The blonde man started to search through a burlap sack that was next to the younger twin's foot. Luxord pulled out the sword that Roxas was using the night before when he was fighting that soldier. The General turned back to Roxas and placed the sword by the chain connected to the shackles around Roxas's wrist. With skill, the man broke the chain with little to no effort with the sword. The young blonde was finally free to move his arms, he gratefully stretched them out. Roxas just wished he could get the shackle cuffs off his wrist though, the harsh rusty metal made his wrist become red and raw.

Luxord held out the sword in its sheath to Roxas- who took it and put the strap over his head- lying like a satchel. The sword tapping against his left leg as he jumped out of the wagon after laying Sora's head down gently and covering his older brother with a blanket to hide him completely. The blonde stretched his aching bones and muscles and let out a sigh. That was when an arrow whizzed by his head, just barely missing his left ear. Immediately Roxas squeaked and jumped back, almost losing his footing. The soldiers growled and ran to the now exposed thugs. There were six thugs to be exact, and there were six soldiers including Roxas. Heavy metal clashed as swords and daggers connected. What was Roxas supposed to do?

Roxas then saw a slightly taller than himself, teen. The boy looked to be about sixteen years old like Roxas. But the kid had shorter lighter blonde hair that slicked back and stuck up, and had chocolate brown eyes. Those eyes narrowed as they made eye contact with Roxas's sapphire blue eyes. The boy lifted up his sword and twirled it a couple times in the air before rushing towards Roxas- his eyes full of hatred. The blue-eyed blonde glared back and unsheathed his own sword and held it up. His legs spread apart in a fighting stance, his arms ready for the blow. And the blow did come, right on Roxas's sword. The metal clashed and the two boys held their swords locked. They both grit their teeth and pushed with all their might to overpower one another. Their eyes locked. _'Why does this guy seem so angry at me?' _Roxas thought. The blue-eyed blonde's arms were giving out. He had to act fast, so Roxas's right black boot came up and kicked the other blonde in the ribs. The boy stumbled, but quickly raised his sword again and swept it in overhead strike. Before the boy could heavily slash down, Roxas swiped his sword quick across the chocolate-eyed blonde's torso. The boy yelped and clutched his bleeding side that Roxas barely grazed.

For what seemed to be an eternity-actually just five minutes, the boy lunged his sword at Roxas multiple times- but Roxas dodged every one of the attacks and landed a couple little strikes. Then he had had enough, Roxas took the hilt of his sword and whipped it into the back of the other boy's head. The boy crumpled to the ground in unconsciousness. Roxas stared down at the unconscious blonde and frowned. He knew his job was to kill whoever he crossed swords with in that small fight, but he just couldn't take another life of a person who probably had people who cared about him. Roxas didn't want to have more bloodshed on his hands. It was bad enough that he had killed a soldier, but it was out of self-defense. Besides, the man couldn't have been that innocent if he was blood thirsty and tried to kill two sixteen year olds. Roxas didn't want to kill the boy laying at his feet because he had a long future ahead of him, and he didn't seem so blood thirsty or like a murderer- the teen just seemed...angry. Maybe he was angry because he didn't want to hurt anyone? Just a hypothesis.

"Oi! What you playin' at?!" a Flamma soldier yelled at the blonde. Roxas looked up to see the five soldiers staring at him in bewilderment- but the General looked amused. The blue-eyed blonde frowned.

"He has so much to live for; he's about the same age as me- too young to die. Wouldn't you say? Besides, I am _not_ a _murderer_," Roxas glared. The blonde then got a good look at his surroundings; all of the other five thugs were dead, red crimson spewing out from their wounds. Roxas's nose scrunched up in disgust. How could anyone kill someone, not feel any mourning, let alone encourage it? Those thugs were stealing to live, not to just kill. So in a way it wasn't really self-defense on the soldiers part. Then again, what did Roxas know anyways?

The General chuckled and rubbed the back of his head and looked up to the sky as it began to rain, "The boy is right, but we will still have to take the young man with us to face justice," Luxord said calmly, pointing his red smeared sword at the unconscious teen by Roxas's feet. Roxas frown deepened, sometimes dying was better than facing the Flamma Kingdom's "justice". The Flamma's were known for their ways of torture to treason, or any crime at that. Roxas never met the King but, everyone knew that the King was downright heartless. The blue-eyed blonde stared down at the unconscious boy and sighed. Roxas carefully slipped his arms under the boy's arms and dragged him over to the wagon where Sora's still sleeping form remained. How was the brunette still sleeping? Then again, it was Sora. The Flamma soldiers looked at Roxas in confusion- wondering the same thing, which was '_Why be nice to someone who just tried to kill you?' _It was called pity.

The blonde set the unconscious form down on the wagon and got to work. He sat on the open wagon beside the boy and Sora. One of the soldiers stopped gawking and set atop the horse that was pulling the wagon and got the two horses to move again. The soldiers fell in line and walked beside the moving wagon like per usual.

Roxas rummaged through the burlap sack and successfully found what he was looking for. The blonde pulled out- a small jug of water, cloth, bandages, and some medicine to encourage quick healing.

"Woah, whatcha doin' there kiddo?" A man with an eye patch, long black and grey streaked hair that looked greased and was pulled into a ponytail said- gripping Roxas's wrist in a bone crushing squeeze. The blond grit his teeth and tried to pull away, "Let go!" he yelped when he heard a snap in his wrist. Not breaking it, but injuring it.

"Xigbar!" Luxord barked, his eyes narrowing. "Let. Go." The General growled his voice ice cold. The man with the eye patch turned back to look at Roxas in the eye. The man known as 'Xigbar' glared with his one eye at Roxas's narrowed eyes. Xigbar sighed and let go of Roxas- who crumpled to his knees after the man let go. The eyepatched man walked back over to where the coach was, as usual.

Roxas tentatively rubbed his still shackled wrist. The blonde glared at the back of Xigbar's head, trying to burn a hole in it. But after a growl left the boy's lips he began to work.

Roxas carefully peeled off the unconscious blonde's shirt, revealing a tan torso. The blonde took the cap off the jug and soaked the cloth with the water. Roxas put the cap back on, and then delicately wiped the wounds on the boy's torso, wiping away the blood. After most of the blood was gone, Roxas took the medicine and dabbed it on the wounds. The blonde smiled and admired his work, the wounds looked pretty clean. Next Roxas took the bandages and wrapped the boy's torso and arms that got wounded in their fight. Roxas let out a happy sigh, he was happy to help someone who didn't deserve the pain he inflicted on them. Carefully Roxas put the boy's shirt back on and even more carefully, moved Sora closer to the boy, Roxas lay down in the middle of them and pulled a blanket that was over Sora and draped it over himself, his brother, and the unconscious stranger. Roxas snuggled closer to his brother, the blonde facing the stranger's face- not turning his back on his enemy, but turning his back to Sora. Sora subconsciously wrapped his arms around Roxas, pulling the blonde into a hug. Roxas smiled and let his eyes flutter close. Little did he know that the soldiers were staring at him with wonder. But even if Roxas knew, he probably wouldn't have cared. With the General there, who was nice, he felt safe.

**A/N: Ok I know, uneventful. But the next chapter (which I already finished) makes up for it! Just to let you know, over the course of the story Roxas toughens up a lot, and so does Sora. Because I can't keep Sora a crybaby forever so he will toughen up. And Roxas will turn into this amazing character as the story goes along. **

**Alright in response to:**

**Yoyito: Thank you for my first review ever! You made me so happy :D. Ok so to answer your question 'Why the countries names?' Well I just decided to do kind of like Organization XIII's elements and then I added in Terra's and Ventus's elements from Birth by Sleep. So that's why. But they will have a role. Each kingdom in this story will have an important role to play.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Every time I get a new review, it makes me a happy Jelly Bean! Thank you to Yoyito! You make me a happy rainbow jelly bean! Ok so for this story I have been talking to my friend Evelynn, we pitched idea's back and forth (honestly Evelynn is a god at dramatic writing, so she is probably going to be the one behind heartfelt speeches from characters, sex scenes, and badass fighting scenes). So ya, and I feel all professional because I got a new composition book and I have pages filled with idea's for this fic, to get a good idea of where it's going. :D Look forward to chapter 7! Oh my gosh! Can't wait to write chapter 7! It's going to be EPIC. I hope… I think it will. Ok let's get started.**

**Disclaimer: Well, I pitched the idea in the board meeting for Axel to bang Roxas. Everyone in the room looked at me and kicked me out of the board meeting. Soooo in other words, I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Because if I did, they wouldn't have kicked me out of the board meeting…..**

**Warning: YAOI, BOYXBOY. Don't like don't read. Sexual scenes, bloody situations, and cursing.**

**Chapter 3: The Flamma Kingdom and awakening.**

Where was he? He blinked a couple times, and then his light blue eyes opened, taking in his surroundings. The last thing Cloud remembered were the Malo soldiers burning the Kingdom. The blonde was running home to look for Roxas and Sora. Damn it, if only he hadn't left the house to go to the underground resistance meeting.

No time for regret though. Cloud looked around and noticed he was lying on the ground, still in the Kingdom of Potentia. The blonde lifted his head, and then did a push up to get up off of the ground. He pushed up with his aching legs and did a whole three-sixty turn to take it all in.

Everything was burnt down. The once rich soil blackened, with charcoal and blood. Houses everywhere were destroyed. Pieces of wood that were still slightly burning were lying all over, setting a thick smoke in the air- making Cloud scrunch his nose. Bricks, chips of glass from broken windows, and splinters of wood laid everywhere. The worst thing was the dead bodies. Bodies of villagers, Potentia soldiers, and Malo soldiers.

"Yo! Spikey's big bro!" a voice called. The blonde whipped around and sneered, "Show yourself!" he snapped. "Woah! Calm down, we're on the same side. And the fact you don't recognize my voice hurts, Cloud," The boy mocked fake hurt as his form appeared out of the smoke. Cloud's eyes softened and his muscles relaxed, "Zack," the blonde said in surprise. The boy with black hair and blue eyes walked up to stand in front of Cloud.

"Yup," The blackette smiled brightly.

"Zack, what happened?" Cloud asked breathlessly, combing his fingers through his hair.

Zack scratched the back of his head, "Well, the Malo soldiers were searching for something...from what I can guess. They were squabbling all over the place, searching every house, nook, and cranny. And while searching, they blew up the fucking place," The blackette growled bitterly. "Got any idea what they were searching for?" Zack asked, searching Cloud's eyes for a reaction. Zack knew what they were searching for, and he knew Cloud knew too.

The blonde slightly gasped, "Roxas…," Cloud whispered to himself, eyes dropping to the floor.

Zack nodded, "Anyways, a pretty powerful blast from a damn dragon came and I nicely pushed you to the ground and shielded you. You're welcome," the blackette smiled cheekily. Cloud smiled, "Thanks Zack. Have any idea where Sora and Roxas are? I need to find them," The blonde asked.

Zack shook his head, "Nope. Last time I saw Roxas was a couple hours before the attack, when he snagged me these babies," Zack smiled, digging into his pocket and pulling out a couple emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.

Cloud's eyes widened to the size bigger than dinner plates, "WHERE THE FUCK DID ROXAS GET THOSE?!" the blonde screamed, eyeing the gems in Zack's hand. The blackette smiled and put the gems away. Then Zack's smile dropped, "What do you mean 'where did he get them'? I thought you knew….," Zack trailed off, staring at the ground, his hands awkwardly laid on his head.

"Tell me what?" Cloud growled. The black haired man sighed, and kicked a pebble, "Don't know if Roxas ever told you, but...He's a thief. Roxas is a damn good thief too, he stole from the castle last night. He was successful too. He didn't get caught and he grabbed enough gems and coins to make your family and me rich." Zack mumbled, still kicking around pebbles.

Cloud gaped like a fish, his jaw lying wide open, "_What?" _he snapped. Zack's hands flew up in defense at the bitterness in the blonde's voice, "Woah-oh! Don't shoot the messenger!" Zack cried. The blonde shook his head in defeat, "Sorry," Cloud said and then turned around and started to walk away. "H-hey! Where are you going?" Zack yelped.

"To find Sora and Roxas. To make sure their okay, and to _wring_ Roxas's neck," Cloud replied, and then growled the last part. Zack nodded, although the blonde couldn't see it. The blackette jogged up to the blonde and strode beside him. "So, where do we start looking?" Zack asked. Cloud blinked, "What do you mean 'we'?" he asked. The black haired boy shrugged, "You don't _hate _me, and Roxas and Sora are my friends. I want to know they're okay. Besides, I kind of just lost my home. Nothing better to do," Zack mumbled. Cloud decided not to say anything, just nod.

"So, where do we start?" Zack piped up. Cloud rubbed the back of his head, "See if I know. Let's go where these woods take us," the blonde replied. Zack nodded and they fell silent as they walked into the forest that Sora and Roxas entered the night before.

XxxxxxXXXXXXXXXxx

_Roxas, Roxas, Wake up! Wake up! Come on! Wake up!_

"Nghh…" the blonde trailed off and stirred. "One more minute Cloud….," Roxas muttered, groggily. Sora shook his brother's shoulder harder, "ROXAS! GET UP NOW!" Sora screamed in his brother's ear. Roxas eyes widened and he shot up quickly- colliding his head into Sora's. Both boy's groaned and rubbed their temples. Ugh the morning sun was so annoying. The blonde blinked a couple times and remembered the entire past night. He was hoping...that it had all been a nightmare. He sighed and looked around, houses everywhere. Some sort of city? Village?

Their wagon was parked in the middle of what looked to be a town square, a few people gawking at them, the five soldiers shuffled around- buying things and setting goods down by Roxas and Sora on the wagon.

The blonde spotted General Luxord, "Uh, Luxord? Where are we?" Roxas called over to the man. The general was currently talking with the boy that Roxas knocked unconscious last night. Luxord walked away from the boy and over to Roxas, "Ah. We are in the Flamma Kingdom. The castle is about a two hour walk from here," he explained. Roxas nodded. Great, two hours away from death.

"We had to stop a couple hours ago because of the storm. We have to go meet one of my friends now, so, you could go back to sleep and when you next wake up we should be arriving through the castle gates," Luxord told Roxas. The blonde nodded as the general walked away. So the two brothers sat in the wagon next to each other silently. Well silent until Sora said, "You know, they seem nice enough. Maybe we will be okay," Sora gave his younger twin a reassuring smile. The blonde smiled back, _'What ever helps you sleep at night, Sora,' _Roxas thought to himself- bringing his knees up to his chest, setting his chin on his knees, and wrapping his arms around his legs.

The soldiers scurried around, packing up. And then the chocolate brown-eyed blonde sat down next to Roxas. The blue-eyed blonde tensed.

"Who cleaned my wounds?" the stranger asked, looking at Roxas. The blue-eyed blonde blinked for a couple times, looking to the other blonde. "I did," Roxas replied.

"Why?"

"Because,"

"Because why?"

"Because," Roxas could do this all day. 

"Why did you let me live, and why did you clean my wounds?" he muttered.

"You don't deserve to die," Roxas answered truthfully, shrugging nonchalantly. "How do you know that?" Hayner snapped, eyes narrowing.

"Because no one deserves to die. Especially at the hands of a person like me," The blue-eyed blonde answered simply. Hayner's gaze softened, "Sorry, about trying to kill you and all," Hayner mumbled. Weird. That apology was quick.

Roxas smiled comfortingly, "Hey dont worry about it,"

Hayner's smiled widened, "Name's 'Hayner' by the way," the chocolate brown-eyed blonde said, holding his hand out for Roxas to shake, "I'm Roxas," the blue-eyed blonde replied, taking the hand and giving it a firm shake. "Oo! And I'm Sora!" Roxas's older brother piped up, excitedly. Hayner laughed and shook Sora's hand. "So, how did you two end up here?" Hayner asked. Roxas scratched the back of his head, "Well. We were born in Lucemspero, but the Kingdom was falling and our family was killed... so six years ago Sora, our older brother Cloud, and I fled to the Kingdom of Potentia. But two nights ago the Kingdom of Potentia got destroyed by Malo Kingdom soldiers. I have no idea what happened to Cloud...but me and Sora escaped to the woods. But of course these Flamma soldiers found us in the woods. So now we're here," Roxas replied sadly.

Hayner nodded, sporting a small sad smile. The soldiers were then packed up and ready to go. Luxord walked next to the wagon by Roxas, the other soldiers going where ever, and Xigbar on one of the horses at the front. "So where are you from?" Sora asked, looking at Hayner.

Hayner looked to the brunette, "The Liquidum Kingdom," the chocolate brown-eyed blonde replied. Sora and Roxas nodded in union.

After a while the trip turned into Hayner asking a question, and then Roxas would answer. Sora on the other hand, slept.

"Favorite color?"

"Black, blue, or white"

"Last name?"

"Strife?"

"Well, that's all I got."

xxXXXXXxxxxx

Eventually the wagon went through a corn field, then to a farmhouse. Upon arrival a silver haired teen was standing in front of the small house, waving.

The teen called, "Hey! Luxord!"

As they pulled up the general went over and hugged the teen. Roxas figured he should get Sora up. So the blonde punched Sora in the arm, hard. The brunette shot awake, gripped his arm, and then frantically looked for the culprit. Roxas and Hayner both turned away with knowing smiles. Sora groaned and gave up trying to figure out which one of them had done it. "You guys are so mean!" Sora pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. The two blondes laughed- making Sora farther the pout.

"Who are you?" the silver haired teen asked, looking at Roxas, Sora, and Hayner.

"Prisoners apparently," Roxas answered gruffly. Hayner and Sora remained silent. The teen walked over and propped his elbows on the railing of the wagon, resting his head in his hands. The teen rolled his eyes and said, "Obviously. But I meant your names."

Hayner blinked, Sora made and 'o' shape with his mouth, and Roxas stared.

"My name's Sora!" the brunette cheered. _'This kid is way too cheerful to be a prisoner' the_ teen thought to himself.

"Hayner," The brown-eyed blonde grunted.

"Roxas," The blue-eyed blonde mumbled.

The teen with the silver hair nodded and said, "Riku," so his name was 'Riku', Roxas made a mental note.

Roxas saw Luxord disappear into the farmhouse but he returned within about ten minutes. Riku sat down next to Sora, and then the soldiers began to march again. On the way to the Flamma Castle, the boys shared stories with one another. Riku, telling the most. Sora seemed to really take a shine to Riku. Roxas would have to watch the silverette carefully. The teens laughed and enjoyed themselves, then eventually passed out from exhaustion.

It was a good thing they enjoyed those moments. Because, the real adventure would begin in the morning.

**A/N: Two updates in one day?! Oh my. Mmmm I love jelly beans 3 Anyways, it's off to bed for me. Hope you enjoyed it. AND BEWARE OF AXEL NEXT CHAPTER. HE IS AN ASSHOLE AT FIRST. HE'S A MEANIE BO BEANY TO ROXAS.**

**Hope you enjoyed! Review! Recommend please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Nothing really to say because I just went back and edited it.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own except the plot.**

**Warning: Axel is an asshole in this chapter. Yaoi, bloody fighting scenes, and cursing.**

Roxas woke up with a jolt. Himself, Hayner, and Sora all were thrown to the ground. They all landed with a '_thud'. _Why whenever Roxas woke up, something bad happened? The world was cruel.

All three groaned. They all tried to stand but they took notice that they were newly shackled, and there was a guard behind each of them holding a chain that was connected to their shackles. The boys sat up on their knees and confusedly looked around. Roxas in the middle, Sora to his right, and Hayner to his left. After looking around at the ceiling, decorations, and the furniture in the room-Roxas figured out that judging by all the red and black and nicely furnished everything. They were in the Flamma Castle. The last thing Roxas noticed was a man, who had ruby red hair that stood up in long spikes, light emerald green eyes, and two upside down purple tear drop tattoos under each eye.

The man smirked at them, making Roxas's stomach flip. The man was wearing red cotton clothes, accompanied by a black cloak. Also he was sitting on a platinum throne. If Roxas did say so himself, it must have been the King.

The blonde turned around the best he could, only to see the guard behind him was Xigbar. The man with the eye patch smiled cruelly at him. Roxas scowled, just great. The King stood from his throne with grace, and strode over to the trio. Sora understood what was going on, and he wasn't pleased in the slightest. Sora sometimes wished that he could melt into the floor and disappear; this was one of those times. But the brunette let his mind wonder, where was Riku?

Roxas wouldn't let the King know that he was terrified though. Hayner and Sora, bowed their heads- looking to the floor with solemn faces. But Roxas held his head high (actually his head touched the back of his neck because the King was so tall that Roxas had to crane his neck all the way back to look him in the eye) and looked straight into the red headed King's hard glare. Ugh they were doomed, and they all knew it too.

"Names," the hotheaded King's voice boomed throughout the high ceiling hall, making an echo. The King, whose name was Axel- glared back into Roxas's emotionless eyes. Axel hated people who were like that, thinking they are in a higher place to not bow to him. The blue-eyed blonde wasn't quivering in fear of him. And though Axel would never admit it to anyone- he hated it with a passion. But no matter, no matter, the redhead could change that. 

"Hayner…," The chocolate brown- eyed blonde replied.

"Sora,"

But Roxas remained silent; he wouldn't say a word to this heartless King. Axel was pissed, and just to put a cherry on top of it, the blonde looked to a window, furthering his disobedience- fully ignoring the King and basically saying 'I'm too good to talk to a person like you'.

Axel looked pissed; he turned to the blonde's older twin, "Brothers?" Axel asked Sora.

"Ye-" Sora began but the King cut him off.

"And is he a mute?" The redhead inquired.

Sora shakily looked to his defying younger brother, the brunette's head hung and the tears welled like a flood about to break through a dam, "No…" Sora answered, his stomach clenched.

'_Thanks alot Sora, I'm deader than before now,' _Roxas thought bitterly about his brother.

Axel let out a 'mhm'. And in one quick fluid motion, something hard hit Roxas's jaw. Making his head crack to the side and he fell over to the left by Hayner's knees. The blonde groaned, at least he held back the cry that he wanted to let out. Hayner looked down at Roxas with worry. The brown-eyed blonde desperately wanted to help. But, he wanted to save his own skin like every other selfish human being in the world.

Sora looked over to his little injured brother and let one stray tear leak out, Axel had kicked Roxas really_ hard _across the face, a blow like that could reposition the blonde's jaw. "Answer when spoken to or suffer the consequences," Axel growled. The King's eyes burned with blood lust, he bent down and gripped Roxas's neck.

Axel lifted Roxas off the floor and up to eye level with himself. Roxas stared frozen in fear, but Roxas didn't look afraid. He in fact looked emotionless but with rage swimming in his foggy sapphire blue eyes. The blonde refused to give the King the reaction he wanted; he refused to be a weakling.

Axel fingers tightened around the blonde's throat, cutting off his windpipe. The blonde couldnt help but slightly shake. "Now I'm going to ask you one more time. What is, your name?" the redhead interrogated slowly. Venom dripping from each word. Roxas squinted and glared into the man's burning gaze. The blonde refused to die here, at the hands of that monster. So he gave up.

"Roxas…" he choked out.

"Roxas," Axel repeated, seeing how it tasted on his tongue. The redhead then cruelly dropped the blonde after he got what he wanted. Roxas stumbled, but caught himself, landing on his feet. The blonde glared at the King, with a heated glare that had more heat than a thousand burning suns.

Axel turned back around and strode to his throne and sat down. "So…" the King said slowly, draping one of his legs over the armrest of the throne- looking much like a bored child.

"Luxord tells me that, Roxas and Hayner can fight pretty well. And I need every soldier I can get so, they can be of use. But I have no use for the brownie though, nor do I care if he proves himself or not. Kill him," Axel demanded boredly, pointing at Sora- who was apparently the 'brownie'.

"Like_ Hell," _Roxas growled and dove to the floor and covered himself over Sora. Immediately after that, a flying sword whizzed above the two brothers. That sword would have been lodged in Sora's head if Roxas hadn't knocked him over to an armadillo position.

Xigbar and the guard who had the chain connected to Sora's and Roxas's shackles, yanked with brute force to pull the two twins apart. But the blonde wasn't having any of it; he squirmed and fought to stay over his brother like a protective shield. Xigbar growled and yanked so hard that the chains threatened to pull Roxas's arms out of their sockets. The blonde grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes tight and fought back. The guards had had enough, they yanked so hard that Roxas flew back and Sora was dragged a couple feet away on the floor. "Sora!" Roxas shrieked, tears threatening to leak from his eyes.

"Hey! Leave 'em alone!" Hayner yelled, but was ignored.

The blue-eyed blonde got out of the shock of flying back and went to lunge for his twin again, but Xigbar kept him at bay and pinned Roxas to the ground, crunching Roxas's head against the tiled floor. Then blonde heard the clinking of, coins? Roxas looked around and saw the gems, gold, and silver coins that were hidden in his boot, leaking to the floor. Roxas gulped, "A thief are we?" the man with eye patch growled, crushing his head more. The blonde thrashed, but to no avail.

Axel swiftly walked over to Roxas and squatted down and picked up a couple gems. Roxas's blue eyes glared hatefully up at the redhead. The King inspected them for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion, "These are gems from the Potentia castle," Axel spoke, holding the gems out. General Luxord came over and squatted next to Axel. Luxord inspected them and then looked to the little blonde that was being pinned, "How on Earth did you manage to get these?" he asked. Roxas stayed silent and continued to try and burn their heads with his glare. What if Sora found out that he stole?

Xigbar laughed maliciously and tugged on Roxas's hair, bringing his head up, and then slamming it back down on the ground. Roxas's sapphire eyes widened and he saw stars. Ouch. The blonde groaned. Xigbar tugged his head back up and Roxas felt the blood trickle down his cheek from the fresh wound on his forehead. Luxord glared at Xigbar. The General's eyes read, 'Do it again and I will slit your throat'.

Not wanting it to happen again, Roxas quickly spilled his guts, "I stole them from the Potentia castle, alright?!" the man with the eye patch let go of Roxas's honey colored hair and the blondes head slunked in defeat. Roxas heard a silent gasp come from Sora. He couldn't meet his brother's gaze.

The King hummed. "Your majesty I implore you to-" Luxord said worriedly. But Axel cut him off, "No my decision is final, kill the brownie, keep the other two alive. When I have time I will deal with them myself," Axel said darkly. Luxord looked solemn and sighed. Roxas regained his senses and got his spark back. His eyes flamed and he tried to spring to his feet but Xigbar held him down. Axel pocketed the gems, paying the blonde no mind, and stood up- Luxord followed suit.

A man with red hair like the King's, (except that man seemed older, and he had red markings under each of his cold blue eyes) the man walked over to Sora and pulled out a sword and looked down at Roxas's twin. The blonde gulped and his eyes widened, Roxas's tongue grew thick in his mouth. They were going to kill all he had left. All he had left to fight in that damned world

Roxas didn't care about pride anymore, "SORA! Sora! Leave him alone! I'll do anything!" Roxas screamed, looking up into Axel's uncaring eyes. The King chuckled, "You will do whatever I tell you to do anyways," Axel had a point. Roxas kicked, writhed, squirmed- he tried everything to get out of Xigbar's grasp. The redhead with blue eyes looked to Axel for a command, shrugging. The blonde looked to the King with pleading eyes. His self-pride was out the fucking window, mind finding it for him? Axel's tongue grew thick in his mouth and he felt his heart slightly melt. He hated acting heartless.

"Sir..." Luxord tried to reason, without crossing an invisible line. Axel tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Tell ya what. You're annoying me, Luxord says you can fight. And I haven't had any entertainment for a while. So how about in two days from now, you will fight one of my greatest knights. If you win you can keep your pathetic life, join my army, and your brother can live here in the castle freely in luxury. But if you lose, you will suffer a fate worse than death and your brother will die," the King finished coldly. The blonde nodded the pressure of Xigbar's body left him as the man got off of him. "Get his sword Luxord. Reno take him, his brother, and Hayner to the amory. Get Blondie suited for armor and a good sword. Then give Hayner to Malcolm, he has been asking for an assistant for a while now. After Roxas has his armor and sword, take the brothers to a spare bedroom to stay in and then leave them to await my return for them," Axel directed, it sounded like a well-rehearsed speech.

The other redhead known as 'Reno' nodded and lifted Sora from the ground lightly, and then strode over and picked up Roxas, then Hayner, and then dragged them out the large metal doors out to the grounds of the black and grey stoned castle.

Roxas breathed in the fresh air, closing his eyes, and breathing in and out. He didn't think he would have come back out of that castle alive. None of them did. And then he opened his eyes again. Sapphire blue eyes looked around. The grounds were beautiful, white and red roses everywhere. The beautifulness of it all did not suit the King living in the castle.

xxXXXXXxxx

They walked all the way to the back of the castle, none of them saying a word to one another. They went down some steps going underground to what looked to be a basement. Reno opened a metal door attached to the castle; they walked into the room, which Roxas assumed was the armory.

A fire burned in its hearth in the corner, tables, stoves, hammers, lava, metals, saws, swords, ovens, other weird looking weapons, and various pieces of armor- laid all around the room.

Yep, armory.

"Hey Malcolm!" Reno called. A man with black hair and blue eyes- looking to be in his early twenties popped their head up from under a table. He reminded Roxas of, Zack. This made the blonde depressed.

"Yo," Malcolm replied, smiling and waving.

Reno nodded and began with his order, "I need this kid, Roxas here," the redhead began, pushing Roxas forward slightly, "to be set up with some armor and a good sword. And I need this kid, Hayner here," he said, pointing to Hayner, "to be your apprentice," Reno finished. Malcolm simply nodded and left to another room. And Reno left too, bidding his goodbyes and saying he'd be back. Sora just awkwardly sat on the ground with a huff. He couldn't believe it. His little brother was sacrificing his life to save him, and what was he a damsel in distress?

Malcolm returned to where they were and stepped over to them, "Okay, Hayner, have any experience in this line of work?" the blackette asked. Hayner nodded and answered, "Actually this was my job back home," Malcolm nodded and went back into the other room in the armory.

Leaving the three boy's alone again. Without a word Roxas hurriedly walked to the metal door and attempted opening it. The door was locked. The blonde cursed and tugged harder on the handle. Finally he let out an angry sigh and gave up, running his hands through his golden locks in distress.

"Hey," Hayner spoke up, "it will be okay. We'll find a way out," Hayner smiled reassuringly. Roxas just nodded. Nothing would ever be okay again.

Malcolm came back with a very large and heavy looking sack moments after, "Alright Roxas, what kind of armor and sword do you work with?" The black haired man asked, dumping the contents of the sack on the table and began organizing them neatly. A bunch of swords and armor were in the sack. The blonde never worked with armor before, not much of a sword either, "Uh, what?" Roxas asked in confusion. "He means, like what are your strengths so we can get you the right armor for it," Hayner elaborated.

Roxas's eyes lit up with realization.

"Oh, um, well I use speed to the best of my ability, so a light sword and armor would be great. I can't block that well against heavy attacks so a really solid sword is probably needed. So yeah I guess, a good light sword and light armor would be great," Roxas answered thoughtfully.

"Okay, leather armor it is, that's the lightest armor I have. But try and improve your skills on blocking, the armor won't help you too well against heavy attacks," Malcolm explained as he disappeared to the back room again.

A few minutes later he returned with a sword in its sheath and some garments of armor. "Alright this is the finest leather armor I have, it should fit you," the blackette said simply, giving the raven black leather armor to Roxas. The blonde took it and held it over his arm.

"Nextly, we have this baby," Malcolm chirped excitedly, handing over the sword to Roxas. The blonde grasped the sheath and gripped the black handle of the sword and unsheathed it. The sword was amazing. The black handle was carved delicately. Roxas turned the sword over and inspected the hilt. The word 'hope' was carved into it. He wondered what that was about. The sword itself was a pretty steel blue.

"It's made of platinum, it's the lightest and best thing I've got," Malcolm shrugged, smiling. The blonde smiled and put the sword back in its sheath. It was truly a beautiful and magnificent sword.

"Whoa, is that sword a beauty or what! I hope I learn how to make swords like that," Hayner exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. The chocolate brown-eyed blonde slapped Roxas on the back "Take good care of that sword Roxas," he laughed. The blue-eyed blonde nodded and laughed too. Sora still remained silent, but stood up from the floor.

As if on cue, Reno swung the metal doors open. "Time to go," the redhead said boredly. The blonde said goodbye to Hayner and Hayner gave him a nervous smile and gave him a thumb's up in return and a 'good luck'. Sora and Roxas left with Reno wordlessly to be taken to a spare room. Possibly to await their demise.

Axel said he would personally go to their room to interrogate them. Great. In the blonde's opinion, they were so fucked.

xxxXXXXXXXxxxx

**A/N: Did I just end the chapter on a cliffy, yep I did. In the next chapter we will find out what Axel does to the twins in the bedroom *suggestive eyebrow wiggle*, and Roxas's training to beat a knight begins, oh and if Sora will even talk to his brother after finding out that he stole.**

**Oh and I promise you, Axel and Xigbar don't stay assholes forever. Let their characters develop, kay?**

**In Response to:**

**Ern Estine 13624: Thanks! :D**

**Review and thank you!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Too tired….**

**Disclaimer: Do NOT own. Just this plot.**

**Warning: Shouta, Sexual scenes, bloody scenes, and cursing.**

Reno had taken the two brothers to a room on the eighth floor. Close to the top, the highest floor being the tower, thirteen levels up. It was a very large castle.

Currently Roxas and Sora were waiting in a room that was bigger than their entire hut. There was a King sized bed with red covers and golden trim in the middle of the left wall. Black drapes hung on the beds black post. Across from the bed on the opposite wall was a white and blue trimmed vanity with many jurors. A mahogany dresser lay next to the vanity. A room for just bathing and dressing was through a white door in the corner of the room. A red leather armchair sat next to the window with a book shelf by it.

Sora lay sleeping peacefully under the bed's covers, while Roxas was sitting in the bathroom- tending to his wounds.

Looking in the gigantic mirror, Roxas inspected his jaw that was assaulted by Axel's foot. The blonde leaned in closer to the mirror, standing on his tippy-toes; he lightly traced his wounded jaw with his pointer and middle finger. At least his jaw was okay, just badly bruised, his neck was bruised too from Axel choking him. Roxas stepped back from the mirror and then bent down to look through the cupboards. Successfully the blonde found a roll of bandages.

Carefully he peeled his cloak and shirt off, revealing a couple minor scrapes from his and Hayner's fight. And also a big bruise in the middle of his torso from the Malo soldier's kick to his stomach. Roxas turned and looked over his shoulder in the mirror to inspect his back. Luckily he found no injuries to his back. Picking up a red wash cloth from the counter, he turned the sink on and wetted the cloth. The blonde turned the water off and delicately wiped the dry blood from his cuts. Once the blood was gone, Roxas moved to wipe off his wrists that were rubbed harshly by the shackles. After everything looked pretty clean, he slowly took some bandages from the roll and wrapped his entire torso and his wrist. He chuckled slightly at the fact that he looked like a mummy.

After that was done, Roxas turned the sink back on. Carefully he put his head under the water and let the blood from his head wash out of his hair and down the drain. The water felt so good on his aching scalp from the bastard Xigbar's violation. Once the blood was out of his hair and he used the cloth to clean the split skin, he took a black fluffy towel and gingerly dried his hair. Roxas winced when the towel lightly brushed his wound. He set the towel down and then took the bandages and wrapped his head. It looked odd, his honey blonde spikes poked out between the bandages on his head. Oh well.

'_Okay. Next clothes,' _Roxas thought to himself. The blonde walked back into the bedroom area and over to two white doors that looked to be a closet. He opened the doors and found his theory correct that it was a closet. Searching through the clothes, Roxas settled on a plain white t-shirt and tan cargo pants. He strode back into the bathroom. The blonde laid the clothes on the counter and then he sat on the ledge of the tub. He peeled off his black buckled boots and set them on the rug. He took off his brown ripped trousers and put on the tan cargo pants. The new pants just barely fit him; they hung loosely on his hips, showing a bit of his boxers. He sighed. There were no belts. The blonde looked around and found the bandages he used moments before. So he improvised and tore off a piece of the bandages and put it through the pants loops and tied a knot at the front- making it a makeshift belt. Roxas slipped on the plain white t-shirt and then his black cloak, and then put his boots back on. He looked in the mirror. He looked like one of those people on a wanted poster. Brilliant.

He went back to the bedroom and over to the red leather armchair. Roxas smiled at the sword in its sheath that lay on the chair. The blonde picked it up and strapped it on across his torso. He gripped the black handle and pulled it out of the black leather sheath. Roxas pointed his arm straight out and admired the sword and smiled. It didn't matter if he got it from Flamma scum or not. The sword had an amazing beauty that left you in awe. Roxas smirked and re-sheathed it. He felt better with it on his person. If he had to protect Sora, he would.

The blonde paced over to his older brother on the bed and sighed. Roxas ran a hand through his older twin's chocolate locks. He smiled gently, and reached up and touched his own bandaged head. _For Sora. It's all for Sora._

The peacefulness in the room was obliterated when the wooden slammed open. It was of course, the hotheaded King.

Strangely the King was changed into a black cotton t-shirt, and black trousers. Casual all of a sudden? Or not wanting to get his blood on it? Roxas wondered. The King strode in and sat down on the red leather armchair with his usual grace. The Flamma King crossed his leg over the knee of his other long leg. The King hunched over and propped up his elbow on his knee, setting his chin in his hand. The Flamma King smirked at the blonde.

Roxas fidgeted nervously from his spot on the bed next to his brother. "So," Axel began. "Found a sword easily I see," the redhead spoke, pointing at Roxas's sheathed sword. The blonde stood up from the bed and glared at the King, his jaw clenched. "Come off it already. What do you want?" Roxas snapped. Axel's eyes narrowed, "You're staying in _my _castle. I suggest you hold your tongue," the King threatened. Roxas laughed darkly, "_Your _castle? It may be that, but did I ever say I wanted to stay here? If it was my choice I would've left by now!" Roxas bit out.

Axel smirked, "Then why didn't you leave?" the redhead asked, with delight in his tone. Roxas blinked, "Huh?" he asked. Axel stood up from his seat and began to pace over to the door leading out, then stopped with his back turned to Roxas. The blonde cautiously pulled out his sword and gripped the handle for dear life while still glaring at the back of the King.

"I mean. If you want to leave, why didn't you? You stole these gems after all," Axel replied, turning around and digging out the gems Roxas stole from his pocket. The Flamma King held them out to Roxas. "If you stole these, then how did you get them? How did you get in and out of the castle? Obviously if you wanted you could have snuck your way out of the castle by now." Axel taunted, still smirking. He pocketed the gems.

The blondes sapphire orbs dropped to the ground. Axel was right, and Roxas knew it too. He could have gotten out if he wanted to. The King walked over to Roxas, the blonde immediately unsheathed his sword and raised it threateningly his sword and glared at Axel, his eyes daring the redhead to take another step towards his brother. Axel got the hint and simply walked over to the opposite side of the bed from where Sora lay and where Roxas stood. The King sat on the bed and then gently laid himself down next to Sora. The redhead turned on his side, facing Sora. Axel gave Roxas a playful smirk and a mischievous look. The blonde choked on air and his eyes widened at Axel to see what the King would do. The King lifted his hand and started playing with Roxas's older brother's hair.

The blondes eyes narrowed, and he pointed his sword right under Axel's chin. The redhead smiled and sat up. The King leaned forward, making the blade touch his throat, his eyes daring the blonde. Roxas was beyond confused. Axel held a dark look in his emerald eyes and pearly white smile. Axel suddenly gripped Sora's chocolate locks tightly. The redhead loved the reactions he got out of the blonde. Roxas was his new play thing.

"It would be a shame if anything happened to little Sora, wouldn't it?" The redhead purred, putting his face down close to Sora's sleeping face.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Roxas roared.

Axel's smirk got impossibly smugger, "Or what?" the King dared. What would the blonde do? Well, how much trouble could you get in by killing a King? Probably a shit load.

The blonde sheathed his sword and sprang over his brother and landed on the King in a flash. Roxas's legs straddled the King's torso; his hands found the King's throat and proceeded to choke Axel. The redhead laughed and gripped Roxas's wrist harshly. Axel sat up. When Axel sat up it plopped Roxas on his back on the mattress. The blonde tried to squabble to sit back up, but Axel was already one step ahead of him and was looming over the blonde. The King's hands positioned on each side of Roxas's head. The blonde gulped and stared up into the King's cold eyes.

Axel leaned down and spoke into Roxas's ear, "Or what Roxy?" he asked teasingly, blowing hot air on Roxas's ear. The blonde spluttered and shook, but he managed to raise his arms and push on Axel's chest- trying to put distance. Roxas's attempt was in vain though. The damn redhead was too heavy and strong. Axel just laughed in Roxas's face. _'Damn asshole,' Roxas_ thought to himself.

"Ah, you crack me up. But I didn't come here to torture you in _that _way. No, no, I think cutting off one of these pretty little fingers," Axel began to talk, grabbing Roxas's right pointer finger, "should do. Don't you think so too?" the redhead asked, chuckling darkly. Roxas gulped and tried to squirm out from under the redhead. This only increased the King's laughter, because the blonde was completely failing at getting out of his hold.

Then Roxas did something, bold. The blonde brought his knee up and kneed the King in the crotch. _'Whoever is in charge up there, do you hate me?' _ Roxas thought to the heavens. Axel winced at the pain and the blonde took that as an opportunity to kick the King off of him. The redhead fell to the floor with a groan. The blonde sprang to his feet on the floor. Roxas's eyes narrowed as he took out his sword and glared at the King who was in agony. The King breathed in a deep breath and stood up, and was met with the tip of Roxas's sword by his nose. But the King bravely stood straight up, towering over Roxas. The blonde didn't even second think it when he lifted his sword over his head and swung downward at the King.

But to the blonde's surprise, Axel caught the blade between his hands. The sword almost grazed the redhead's nose. Roxas's eyes narrowed and he grit his teeth as he tried to slice into the King's face. Axel's eyes were seen on either side of the sword, boaring into the blonde's blue orbs. The redhead forced the sword away from his face by pushing his arms outward. Roxas stumbled backwards and his sword lowered in the struggle to regain balance.

While Roxas tried to regain his stance, Axel held his arms straight out making his body into a cross shape. The blonde had his sword hoisted back up in front of him and his glare heated by the minute.

Then something happened. That the blonde didn't think the King was capable of.

Fire swirled around Axel's hands rapidly. Until finally the fire stopped and what looked to be two silver and red chakrams landed in each of Axel's hands. The blonde's mouth was wide open in confusion. Axel could control fire?

The Flamma King laughed, "Close your mouth Roxy. You'll catch flies,"

Roxas snapped out of his confusion and got back into his fighting stance. The blonde guessed it was a necessary skill for the _Flamma _King to have. "That's more like it!" Axel smirked. The King brought a single chakram over his head and then flung it at Roxas. The blondes eyes widened and he blocked the flying chakram. The chakram fell to the floor in a puff of ash, and then recreated itself in Axel's hand. "I'm long distance too ya know," the redhead laughed. The boy was most entertaining for him, and he loved it.

Roxas looked over his shoulder and saw that his brother was still sound asleep. '_Seriously Sora?' _Roxas thought to himself. The blonde got his focus back then and swung at the King. Axel blocked it and pushed Roxas backwards.

The blonde fell to the floor and his sword fell to the ground too and skidded away. His head connected with the tiled ground. Pain exploded in his head and he felt the wound from earlier that was inflicted by Xigbar, open back up and let out a few crimson rubies. Roxas groaned as he brought his left hand up to his forehead. The blonde brought his hand back down and inspected it. His hand was covered in blood.

"Man, Xigbar sure did a number on you," Axel sighed. The King flicked his wrist and the chakrams were gone with a puff of smoke. Axel strode over to the blonde, and crouched down next to him. Roxas hurriedly patted his hand all around the ground, searching for his weapon. The redhead stopped him by slipping his arms under Roxas's arms though. "Come on Blondie, up you go," Axel lifted Roxas up to his feet. The King calmly led Roxas into the bathroom.

"Sit over there," Axel directed, pointing to the ledge of the counter. Roxas moodily did what he was told and hopped up onto the counter. Roxas felt like a two-year old who just got caught trying to get into the cookie jar. The redhead bent down and rummaged through the under-sink cabinets. The King successfully found what he was looking for. Axel stood up, with bandages in hand.

"I already bandaged it," Roxas mumbled, looking at his boots. The blonde began to boredly swing his legs back and forth, hitting his heels on the cabinets. "Well, you look like a mummy; I'll give you points for that. But you're bleeding so it needs to be re-wrapped," The redhead explained, ripping off a string of bandage. The blonde nodded. Axel smiled and began to peel off Roxas's bandages. At seeing the injury, Axel's eyes narrowed. Xigbar was such a bastard. He didn't like seeing the blonde hurt that bad. And he had no idea why.

The redhead took off the entire dirty bandages and threw them in a trash bin. He picked up the clean bandages and began to rewrap Roxas's head. The blonde looked up into the Axel's emerald eyes. The redhead wasn't looking Roxas in the eye though; he was too busy focusing on wrapping the blonde's head. Roxas took note that Axel's eyes held new caring warmth in them. It freaked him out.

"And…done," The redhead smiled and admired his work. Roxas just remained silent and looked up into Axel's eyes. "Now," The redhead began, "interrogation time," the King's face darkened. The blonde bit the inside of his cheek nervously.

"Okay, why were you in the Kingdom of Potentia?"

"My brothers and I lived in Lucemspero but as you must know it began to fall six years ago. My brothers and I escaped to the Kingdom of Potentia. But a couple nights ago, Malo soldiers burnt the place down, not sure why though. But they did so Sora and I escaped to the woods, I'm not sure what happened to our other brother though…But we ended up apparently in Flamma territory, and then the general found us," Roxas explained the same tale of his life for the millionth time. Axel felt his heart heave, he knew how it felt to lose a loved one.

"The Malo soldiers? They destroyed the Kingdom of Potentia?" Axel's eyes widened.

The blonde nodded, "Yeah,"

"When is your birthday?" The redhead asked out of the blue. "Why?" Roxas questioned.

"Just because," The King shrugged.

"Um, it's January first, new year's day. It was actually the same day that Lucemspero fell six years ago," The blonde answered. Axel's eyes widened slightly, "Interesting," the redhead mumbled to himself.

"Why is that interesting?" Roxas inquired.

"No reason, no reason. So, um, what of these gems I found on your person?" he asked, changing the subject. But Roxas still took note of it.

"I...I stole them from the Potentia castle obviously. And I wanted to keep that a _secret _from _Sora,_" Roxas snapped. The blonde still wasn't sure if his older brother would forgive him or not. After all, the brunette hadn't even said a word to him yet.

Axel ignored Roxas's bitter tone and continued, "Mhm, and how did you manage to steal them. And what else have you stolen?"

"I used a secret passageway into the castle. And I've only ever stolen food, clothing, or financial items,"

"Why?"

Roxas's eyes narrowed, "Because not everyone's rolling in it, _your majesty,_" the blonde snapped. Axel glared, "Hold your tongue." The redhead smirked, "And that's 'your all mighty tallness,' to you _shorty. _Or 'your royal hotness'. I think they got a ring to them, don't you?" Roxas glared.

"Alright that's pretty much all I needed to know. Since you never stole in my Kingdom I cannot punish you," Axel's features darkened, "But if I ever catch you stealing in _my Kingdom, _I will chop your hands off. Am I clear?" he asked. Roxas glared, "_Crystal._"

"Good." The King smirked, the creepy face gone.

"So what about Hayner? What are you going to do to him?" Roxas asked, fiddling with his thumbs nervously. Was the blonde allowed to ask that? He didn't know. Roxas was still uncomfortable around the King. One minute Axel was being weird and perverted the next he turned caring. The blonde found it, _bizarre._

Axel hummed, "He will receive the proper punishment," he shrugged. "And what's the 'proper' punishment?" Roxas glared. The redhead smirked, "Being hung,"

Roxas's eyes widened and he gripped Axel's shirt collar, "You can't hang him!" the blonde barked. Axel laughed and his gaze grew hard, "And why not?"

The blonde sputtered, "Be-...because!" he threw his hands up in exasperation. "Fine, fine, I will lower his punishment because I like you kid," Axel sighed. Roxas fumed, "I'm _not_ a kid!" The redhead laughed, "Is that right? How old are you?"

"...Sixteen."

The King laughed harder. "See! You are a kid. I'm twenty-four. So you are a kid." Roxas pouted, "So," the blonde began, trailing off, "Why are you being nice to me?" he asked. Axel stopped laughing, "What do you mean?"

"Well. You're not threatening me or my brother at the moment. And you're not being a pedophile at the moment. So?" Roxas trailed off, raising a brow. Axel shrugged and jumped up to sit on the counter next to Roxas.

"Flamma's are known for being heartless and torturous to prisoners. And that's true, but, I don't know. I guess I like you too much? I'm not completely heartless to prisoners like my family is; I'm only torturous to prisoners in front of people so I keep up this reputation. I guess it's fun messing with you though, you're cute too. You can be my new play thing," the King smirked. The blonde's cheeks turned a bit pink, "A _man, _who is the _heartless Flamma King, _kicked me in the fucking face, choked me, and is threatening my brother and me occasionally. Thinks I'm, cute? And wants to make me his play thing? Lovely." Roxas sighed. Axel laughed, "Yeah I don't understand it either. Live through that little fight of yours and we'll see where that takes us," "What do you mean?" The blonde asked. Axel smirked, "I mean I like you. And not just as a _play toy_. So if you live through fighting one of my best knights, then maybe we could work something out?"

"Do I get a say in this?"

Axel smiled, "Sort of. Well it's late, time for me to go. General Luxord will be here in the morning to take you to the training yard. So bye Blondie," Axel smirked and jumped off the counter. The King turned back to Roxas, he smiled and placed a quick kiss on the blonde's forehead. Roxas's face heated up and the King laughed. Then without a word, Axel left the bathroom and out the bedroom door to go back to his bed chambers. Leaving a very confused and flustered Roxas.

xxxxXXXXXXxxxx

**(The next morning)**

_Knock_

_Knock. Knock knock knock knock_

"_Sora!" "Sora! Open the door!"_

The brunette groggily opened his eyes, and then closed them again. _Knock, knock, "Sora!"_

Sora opened his eyes up again and blinked a few times. He lifted his head off the fluffy red pillow and looked around. Memories from the previous night flooded his head. Right, that man named 'Reno' took him and Roxas to that room and then he conked out and had the best sleep he's had in years.

"Sora! Answer the door will ya?" Someone asked on the other side of the door. It sounded like, Riku?

Riku!

Sora sprang up from the bed and ran over to the door; he opened and was met with silver hair and aqua eyes.

"Hey Riku! Wait what are you doing here?" Sora asked, raising a brow. "Well, I'm a soldier here now but Luxord said today my mentor is 'busy', so I can do whatever the fuck I want. And seeing as how Roxas is training and you're the only other person that has nothing to do also, I thought we could hang out a bit?" the silverette asked. "Oh, okay," Sora smiled. Riku nodded and stepped into the bedroom, Sora closed the door behind him. The brunette awkwardly rocked back and forth on his heels, "So, you said Roxas is training today, what's that about?" he asked. Riku blinked, "Thought you knew," the silverette began, "King Axel came in here last night and interrogated Roxas. Dont know where you were at the time though," Sora's eyes widened, "Roxas left here this morning accompanied by the general to go to the training yard to train for beating that knight so you two can live. Roxas was bandaged up a lot too," Riku finished, rubbing the back of his head. Little that did they both know the bandages were caused by other people, not the King.

"WHERE IS ROXAS NOW?!" Sora roared, gripping the front of Riku's shirt. "Uh, in the training yard like I said. Want me to take you there?" Riku asked. "I think I'm aloud to take you there anyways….." Riku mumbled to himself.

"Take me there, NOW," The brunette demanded, tightening his grip on Riku's shirt collar. "Okay! Calm down," Riku reasoned, "I already asked Roxas if he was okay, and he said he's fine."

"Riku just take me there!" Sora pleaded. The silverette nodded and opened up the bedroom door. They stepped out into the hallway and began their descent.

xxXXXXXxxxXXXXXXx

"Alright Roxas, this is, the training yard," Luxord motioned his hands out to the scenery around them. Roxas was geared up in his black leather armor that had many straps and buckles.

He looked at his surroundings. The training yard was in reality a gigantic rectangular courtyard, with soldiers all around lounging. Roxas and Luxord stood in the very middle of the courtyard. Also in the courtyard in the right corner of the field were steps that led down to Malcolm's armory/blacksmith shop.

Roxas couldn't help but want something to eat, his stomach growled in agreement. The blonde sighed.

"First off, we need to find your mentor," Luxord explained, looking around. "Arthur!" the General barked. A group of four soldiers looked up, then one of the soldiers who looked to be in his thirties with blonde hair and acid green eyes, stood from the group and made their way over to Roxas and Luxord.

"Yes?" the man asked. Luxord cleared his throat, "This is Roxas," Luxord pointed to the little blonde "He is the boy you will be mentoring on how to fight for two days," the General explained. Arthur nodded, and with that Luxord's job was done. The General then walked away to sit on a stone bench with some other soldiers and started to make a conversation. Roxas looked over to Luxord and saw that the General and the soldiers he was talking to were eyeing him. Roxas knew that the soldiers were watching him to see how he performs.

"Alright Roxas," the man named 'Arthur' began; everyone in the courtyard quieted and watched Roxas. The blue-eyed blonde looked up at Arthur, "Do you know the basics?" he asked. Roxas raised an eyebrow, "What basics?"

Arthur sighed and rubbed the back of his head while a few on-looking soldiers laughed at Roxas's ignorance. The blue-eyed blonde looked in the corner of his eye and glared at the gawking people around him.

"Alright Roxas, take out your sword and let's see what you can do," Arthur decided, unsheathing his own sword. Roxas nodded and gripped the sword that was strapped to his left side and pulled the sword out. The blonde knew that soldiers always usually had their sword strapped to their back, but Roxas liked it strapped to his left hip. Even though Luxord said it wasn't wise. He said that was how pirates wore their swords.

"First up, blocking," Arthur decided. Great the thing Roxas sucked at most. "Do not attack, just block my attacks. I will go easy on you. Prepare yourself," The blonde's mentor instructed. Roxas nodded and got into a fighting stance. Arthur nodded too, and it began.

Arthur raised his sword and swung it down. Roxas blocked it by having one hand gripping the handle of his own sword and the other hand on the flat part of the swords tip to gain more leverage. The blonde pushed with all his might but Arthur kept pushing on his own sword. The man's sword made Roxas's sword go back towards the blue-eyed blonde's throat. Roxas grunted and tried to push the man back. But the soldier's strength was too overbearing. Roxas's knees buckled from the pressure and his knees almost gave out.

Roxas had to move, fast. He looked around and noticed how Arthur was stanced. Roxas could easily roll out of the way quickly. Yep that was a good idea. The blue-eyed blonde gave one last push on his sword and then he dived to the right to the ground. Roxas's shoulder connected with the grass, and then his head. Arthur's sword built up enough pressure that when Roxas dodged out of the way, Arthur's sword plunged down into the earth. The man began to tug his sword out of the earth while Roxas lay on his back. Roxas pushed up with his arms and shot to his feet. The blue-eyed blonde regained his fighting stance and got his focus back.

Arthur successfully got his sword out of the ground and laughed, "Very good, Roxas! Let's try regular combat." Roxas nodded.

His mentor got back in his own fighting stance and started to circle around Roxas. The blue-eyed blonde decided not to be a sitting duck. Roxas jumped back five paces and began sliding in a circle along with Arthurs' movements.

Roxas sighed._ Here we go. _The blue-eyed blonde lunged for Arthur's torso. But the soldier quickly slashed Roxas in the leg. Roxas grit his teeth. That really hurt.

"Tip number one: never leave anything open," Arthur advised calmly. The blue-eyed blonde nodded as he gripped his wound. The soldiers around them howled and hooted at Roxas. Some of them even whistled like when you see a hot girl. Roxas glared at them, tightening his grip on his sword, and stood straight, ready to attack again. He would show them what he could do.

Roxas lunged again but made sure Arthur's sword wasn't open to hit anything. Arthur jumped back and Roxas took a step forward and lifted his sword and swept it sideways. Roxas's sword hit Arthur across his shoulder to the middle of his torso. But the man didn't really seem affected by the hit. Arthur lunged forward but Roxas tilted his sword downwards then swung it to the side to block the soldier's attack. Roxas quickly twirled their swords breaking their locked sword's connection. The blue-eyed blonde did an entire three-sixty spin and then slashed his sword hard against Arthur's torso. Blood spewed from them man's wound and out his heavy metal armor.

Arthur gripped his abs in agony, and swung his sword sideways at Roxas's head.

The blondes blue orbs widened as Arthur's sword swung at his head. He couldn't help but think that was a little too extreme for a beginner's lesson.

Roxas quickly ducked to the ground. The man's sword missed his head and Roxas took that as his chance. The blue-eyed blonde put his hands on the ground and quickly swept one of his legs under Arthur's legs. Arthur lost his balance and fell to the ground, landing onto his back. Roxas shot to his feet and ran a hand through his hair and took a shaky breath. Roxas turned away from Arthur and walked away to a bench. The blue-eyed blonde believed in not kicking someone when they're down, Arthur had had enough. Roxas was about to sit down when something _hard _hit his back. The blonde fell to the floor, banging his jaw on the stone bench on the way down. Roxas gripped his bloody jaw and cried out in pain. Red rubies dribbled down Roxas's chin. His fingers twitched. The wound that Xigbar made also reopened and blood ran down his face too. He rolled onto his back and saw Arthur standing over him with a sword pointed at him. Arthur had kicked Roxas's back, knocking the wind out of him. The blue-eyed blonde was about to react when he coughed, and then coughed again. Roxas must have bit his tongue because his mouth was filled with blood, and when he coughed, it sprayed everywhere. All the soldiers in the courtyard quieted immediately. Luxord wanted to intervene, but didn't.

"Tip number two: never turn your back to your opponent," Arthur spoke. He lifted his sword and slashed down at Roxas. The little blonde gripped his sword and quickly rolled out of the way. Arthur's sword landed next to him and Roxas jumped to his feet despite the agonizing pain.

Roxas struck at the man's side but Arthur blocked it. Their swords locked, Roxas's arms were about to give out. Then Arthur kneed Roxas in the gut. If the blue-eyed blonde thought it was hard to breathe before, then he doesn't even know what breathing was now.

Roxas crumpled to the ground, dropping his sword, and clutching his stomach. Arthur thought the boy had had enough; he wasn't going to hurt the boy any more than he had. Arthur felt awful for hurting Roxas at all. It was just the process of learning. You learn to fight skillfully or you pay the price. That was the Flamma soldier's motto. Luxord was about to jump up and run over to Roxas's aid when something remarkable happened.

The blue-eyed blonde slowly got up off the ground- covered in dirt, sweat, and blood. Lots of blood. Roxas looked at his armor and then he began taking off the straps. Everyone present stared at him in wonder. Especially the Flamma King, who was watching from a far window.

Roxas took off all the armor entirely and dropped it to the ground, revealing his tan cargo pants and white t-shirt. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head- while laughing, "Bloody armor's been holding me back," he smiled. He bent down and retrieved his sword from the ground, and got back into a fighting stance.

"Roxas? Don't you think you've had enough?" Luxord asked from his seat. Roxas shook his head, "Nope, just getting started."

Roxas ran at Arthur with lightning quick speed, he hoisted his sword over his shoulder, ready to swing. The blonde kept swinging and bringing his sword down at Arthur. The man barely blocked each attack. Usually when one is injured they lag, but Roxas had a sudden burst of energy. Roxas just kept lunging, striking, and swinging. Roxas's blue amulet came out from under his shirt in the struggle. The blue-eyed blonde could have sworn the amulet started to glow. He was about to stop and look at it when-

"ROXAS!" "Roxas!"

Roxas turned and looked for the noise and saw his brother and Riku running towards him.

"Are you okay?!" Sora asked while sprinting to his younger twin. The blonde just looked at them with his mouth agape. Once Sora and Riku made it over to Roxas, they were shocked.

Roxas looked, _awful._ The blonde's forehead was bleeding- dying the honey blonde locks a murky crimson, blood trickling down his younger brother's face. Roxas's jaw that was bruised from Axel's kick had the skin split open, making blood go down Roxas's neck. Blood was even coming out of the blonde's mouth in long flowing streams- making Roxas's once pink lips, a dark ruby red. Roxas's left leg was also bleeding heavily out from a large gash on his leg. And the blonde's clothes had grass, mud, and dirt stains all over.

Sora's and Riku's eyes widened. "Roxas the fight is _over," _the brunette growled. The blonde had never ever seen his brother angry. So the younger twin nodded and sheathed his sword. Sora lightly grabbed Roxas's hand and dragged Roxas away. Riku, Luxord, and Arthur followed behind the twins. At least Sora was talking to Roxas and for that- the blonde was thankful.

The King who was watching from the window found it all so amusing. After all, a normal person would be down from that many wounds, or at least dragging. But then again, Axel had to talk with his father right away about Roxas. About the blonde's birthday, where Roxas was born, that Roxas's birthday just happened to be on Lucemspero's downfall, and let us not forget the blue amulet. Interesting.

**A/N: Holy fucking shit, this chapter was sooooo long. My brain is mush, considering I took up my entire Saturday writing this. But a tub of cookie dough ice cream and packs of Mario fruit snacks later, and it finished! Val la!**

**In Response to:**

**Guest Review: Nah you didn't sound like a grammar Nazi. You were nice about it :D and Nazi's are meanies so you're not a grammar Nazi. Thank you for the help though! Sadly I tried to fix my errors and my computer like freaked out on me. Also I should really save my good copies, would be easier to change things….annnnnyways thanks!**

**Yoyito: I know I hate cliffhangers too. But ooooh well.**

**Thanks for reviewing**

**Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Meh, tired.**

**Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, do not own. Woo**

**Warning: You know the drill.**

**Enjoy!**

"Sora! I'm fine!" Roxas defended. "No you're not! Just shut up and let me get you medical help!" Sora screamed, dragging his younger brother down a random hallway.

Riku, Luxord, and Arthur were silently following. But then Luxord and Arthur looked at each other and had a silent conversation with their eyes. Arthur nooded and so did Luxord. Luxord walked behind Roxas and Arthur walked behind Sora. The green-eyed blonde slipped his arms under Sora's arms and pulled the brunette away from his brother. Luxord lightly pushed Roxas's shoulder. "Hey!" Sora screamed. The littlest blonde took a few steps back from Sora and looked to Luxord and Arthur questionly.

"Your brother is giving me a bloody migraine," Luxord explained. Roxas nodded in understanding. Riku didn't even budge to help Sora, because he knew as well as the next guy that Sora was being extremely over protective and annoying. Sora thrashed and punched at Arthur. The man sighed put his arm around Sora's waist and carried the brunette at his side like a basketball. Arthur used his other free arm to cover Sora's mouth that was screaming out foul language.

"Mfm! Rofas! Mmfth!" Sora tried to yell. Luxord sighed, "Look kid, we can get Roxas to the hospital wing a lot faster than you can," He explained. Sora gave up after that, he stopped thrashing, and stopped screaming. So Arthur took his hand away from Sora's mouth but didn't put the brunette down.

Arthur laughed, "I'm surprised he didn't lick my hand," he spoke- earning a few laughs from Roxas, Riku, and Luxord. And even a slight grin from Sora.

xxXXXxxxxXXXx

After going down random hallways they arrived at two large oak doors. Luxord pushed them open and they all walked in. Roxas limping a bit though. The room was obviously the hospital room. Everything was white. Beds with curtains around them were everywhere, and medicines and other miscellaneous medical items laid everywhere. "Aerith? You in?" Luxord called out. A second later a very kind looking woman appeared by the desk. She had long brown locks and light green eyes. When the woman saw the five of them her eyes widened slightly, "Oh dear, what brings you all here?" she asked.

No one said a thing, so Riku took it upon himself to point to Roxas. The woman known as 'Aerith' followed Riku's finger and her eyes landed on Roxas. She gasped and covered her hand with her mouth. She hurriedly ran over to the little blonde, "What happened?" Aerith growled up at Luxord. He shook his head, "Wasn't me. Twas Arthur," he explained.

Aerith looked to Arthur and glared. Arthur looked to Luxord, "Thanks a lot," he sighed. Aerith put her attention back to Roxas, "Oh never mind. Let's just help this poor boy," she decided. The green-eyed brunette took the blue-eyed blonde's hand. She led him over to a white bed that was next to some other teen. Sora, Arthur, Riku, and Luxord took a seat across from Roxas's bed at a table. Sora at all the way to the left, Riku next to him, Luxord to Riku's right, and Arthur on the right of Luxord. As Roxas lay down on the bed he looked to his left to get a better look at the teen. But the blonde found that the teen was staring at him and smiling widely.

"Hi! I'm prince Demyx!" The teen cheered. Prince? Prince of what? Roxas blinked and looked at the boy. The other who looked older than Roxas, had dirty-blonde mullet hair and baby blue eyes.

"Uh, I'm Roxas."

Demyx smiled. Aerith returned with jars, cloths, vial, and bandages. "Prince Demyx, please do not bother Roxas right now," she implored. Demyx pouted, "But ever since I fell down those stairs and broke my leg, the only human contact I've had has been you, mamma Aerith!"

She sighed, "Demyx, not now!" He shut up but continued to pout. Aerith pulled out a rack and set down the items that she was holding into the rack. "Alright, Roxas. Take off your shirt and pants," She instructed. Roxas blushed but complied. He slipped off his shirt and rolled up his pant leg instead of taking off the pants. But he left his amulet on.

She began to work; she took the bandages off of Roxas's head and sighed, "Seriously Arthur? You bashed his forehead?" she snapped. Arthur held up his hands in defense, "I didn't do that! Someone else did!" he babbled. Aerith was _never _mad. So seeing her angry could put any grown man in fear of having their balls ripped off. Aerith looked to Roxas, "Who?" she asked. "Xigbar," The blue-eyed blonde shrugged. She sighed, "That man," she grumbled bitterly. Aerith turned around to the rack and took a red cloth from it and dumped the cloth in a rusty bucket of water that was also already on the rack. She took the cloth back out and twisted it, wringing out extra water back into the bucket. Aerith put her hand under Roxas's chin where it wasn't injured. She took her other hand that had the cloth in it and lightly dabbed the blonde's forehead. Once the wound looked pretty clean she reached back to the rack and selected a jar with a white looking lotion substance in it. Aerith took the cap off with a 'pop'. She dipped her finger in the jar and took out a generous amount of it on her finger. Aerith looked back to Roxas and started to gently spread the substance on Roxas's wound. The blonde cringed but held back his cry of agony. Once that was done she re-wrapped his head with clean bandages. Aerith picked the wet cloth back up and started to scrub Roxas's face, removing the dry blood. She repeated that process with Roxas's leg gash, and Roxas's jaw. Then she made him swish some water in his mouth and spit it out. The water was a light pink from the blood that was in his mouth.

"Alright luckily none of the cuts were deep enough to need stitches. So, I say you need to get a lot of rest, change your bandages daily, and put this cream on the wounds each day," She finished, handing Roxas the jar of white cream. The blonde nodded, he got up and limped over to his brother and the others. They all silently left the room while Demyx yelled, "Come back! Don't leave me here, she's evil!" They all knew the dirty-blonde was kidding so they kept walking.

xxXXXXXXxxxXXXX

"What now?" Sora piped up. Luxord and Arthur had left Riku, Sora, and Roxas alone because they 'had to get back to work'. Roxas's stomach growled, "I say food," Sora's eyes widened, "Oh my god! We haven't eaten in days! Riku, take us to food, NOW," the brunette demanded. "Seriously, you haven't eaten in days?" The silverette thought they were joking. Roxas and Sora nodded in usion.

"Okay, let's get us something to eat," Riku decided, leading the way down the red and black hallway.

xxXXXXXXxx

_Knock knock_

"Come in," Roman's voice boomed. The former Flamma King named 'Roman' was lying in his bed reading a book. The doors to his bedroom opened and his youngest son stepped through the doors.

"Ah, Axel. What is it boyo?" Roman asked with a pleased smile. Axel smiled at his father and walked in, he took a seat on the side of his father's bed. Axel sighed, "Well father, you remember those stories you told Reno and I when we were young? You know, the Legend?" his son asked.

"Yes why?" Roman asked, scratching his red- but greying beard.

"I think the Hyacintho Divus has come. I'm not sure though…," Axel explained, rubbing the back of his head.

Roman's eyes widened. It can't be true, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well…," Axel began.

xXXXXXxxxx

Roxas was quite happy. Riku had led them to a room on the first floor. The room was very wide, had long mahogany tables with long oak benches for seats. The floor and walls made of grey brick. And in the far left corner was a counter where you say what you wanted to eat. Behind the counter was a large kitchen. Next to the counter in the left corner was a bar and a couple tables set up for gambling games. It was the dining area for soldiers only.

Roxas had a plate in front of him piled high with fried chicken legs, rolls, jelly bread, chocolate cake, mashed potatoes, and tea to quench his thirst. While Sora had his plate stacked with sweets and meats of every kind. Riku just settled on a medium rare steak and wine. Riku watched the blonde and brunette forget about all manners and stuff their faces. The brothers just kept eating, and eating. Was like watching a black hole.

But then a familiar face sauntered over to them. Xigbar.

"Hey there, Kiddo," Xigbar smirked, sitting himself down next to Roxas. Sora who was sitting across from Roxas, and next to Riku- glared. The brunettes stopped eating and readied himself to jump over the table and strangle the man if necessary. Roxas was uncomfortable, but he kept eating like Xigbar wasn't even there.

The man sighed, "Look, I only injured you to make a point. I'm not _that _heartless. Tis just normal procedure of how we Flamma deal with prisoners and treason. And seeing as how maybe you will live and become an allie, I think it's crucial for us to make up,"

The blonde stopped eating and looked to Xigbar. The eye patched man actually looked truly _sorry. _Roxas nodded in agreement. The man smiled, stood, and left.

"Oh by the way! Arthur wants you out in the training yard!" Xigbar called over his shoulder. Roxas groaned irritably. The blonde was feeling full.

"Hey Sora, I gotta go. See you later," Roxas said quickly before Sora could protest. The blonde dashed out of the dining hall doors and went to find anyone.

The blue-eyed blonde spotted a woman, a maid most likely. He walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder, "Excuse me," he spoke. She turned around, "Yes?" she asked politely. "I'm new here so, do you know where the training yard is?" He asked nicely. She nodded and told him where to go. "Thanks much,"

He went on his way.

xXXXXxxxxxxXxxx

After what seemed like forever, Roxas found the training yard. He walked out of the doors and into the courtyard. But as soon as Roxas walked through the doors, someone collided into him.

"Hey! Watch it!" The voice snapped. The blonde held up his hands defensively, "Uh-sorry? Wait, Hayner?" Roxas said, seeing that the person he collided with was Hayner. Hayner looked up and noticed it was Roxas. The brown-eyed blonde smiled sheepishly, "Sorry," he apologized. "Uh, no problem. So what are you doing here?" Roxas asked. Hayner shrugged, "For some reason they lowered my punishment by a lot. They're just making me tend to all the soldiers. Like clean their filthy armor, polish their swords and armor, collect the things they leave out, help in the blacksmith shop, and also help in the soldier's kitchen. Guess it's better than being six-feet under, am I right?" He smiled. Roxas smiled too and nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right." The brown-eyed blonde's face turned thoughtful, "Wonder why the infamous 'heartless King Axel', didn't kill me? Got any explanations?" Hayner inquired. Roxas knew, of course he knew.

"No idea," Roxas lied. But the blue-eyed blonde knew he would probably pay for making Axel let Hayner live. Great.

Hayner nodded, then his eyes widened, "Oh yeah! I forgot, I saw your fight earlier! You were so awesome!" Hayner exclaimed excitedly. "I mean most people would have given up! Hell, how are you even walking right now?!" Hayner babbled. Roxas smiled, "No idea."

"Well, Roxas. I'll see you around. Make sure you come find me tomorrow, got to make sure you win that fight. Can't have my best friend dying," The brown-eyed blonde smiled reassuringly, placing a comforting hand on Roxas's shoulder. The blue-eyed blonde didn't know what to think of what Hayner said. Roxas never had a best friend before, but he was sure happy that Hayner considered him a best friend. Roxas smiled widely and nodded. Hayner nodded too and left into the castle.

Roxas walked down the grey brick steps and down into the grass. Immediately all the soldiers in the courtyard stopped talking and looked at the blonde. Hushed whispering began and Roxas frowned.

"Roxas!" A man called. Said boy looked up and saw Arthur waving to him. Roxas strode over and stood in front of Arthur while the chatter of the soldiers picked back up to normal volume. "I heard that you wanted to see me in the training yard. More training, am I right?" Roxas inquired. Arthur shook his head, "No, Aerith would _kill _me if I kept you training with those injuries. Just wanted to know if you're okay?" he asked. "I'm fine. And I need to keep training, so can we start now?" Roxas asked. Arthur blinked, "No we _cannot _train right now. you need to heal!" the man snapped. Roxas didn't look amused, "If you haven't noticed _sir, _after tomorrow I am fighting one of the King's strongest knights. I need training, _now._"

"No way kid."

"Fine," Roxas huffed. The blonde turned his back to the man and yelled, "Anyone want to fight me?" Everyone hushed in the courtyard and stared at him.

"I will," A teen that looked the exact age as Roxas spoke, raising his arm. The teen looked like Roxas's brother. But the teen had black spiky hair instead of brown, and the teen had gold eyes instead of blue. Roxas nodded and unsheathed his sword, the teen did the same. General Luxord shot up from his seat on a bench, "You will not fight him, Vanitas," Luxord snapped.

"Oh come on sir, just testing out the competition," The teen called 'Vanitas' chuckled. Roxas raised a single eyebrow. Competition? What's that supposed to mean?

"NO," The general barked, clenching his fist. Then Roxas got a brilliant idea. If the blonde fought Vanitas, then Vanitas would be self-defending himself. Nah, Roxas did NOT want another punishment. Especially if it was from the King.

The blonde looked to Luxord, "Do you want me to die after tomorrow? I need the practice," Roxas spoke calmly. The general growled, "Yes you do need the practice, but not from Vanitas. He is the one you're facing after tomorrow." That is what the teen ment by 'competition'. Roxas looked to Vanitas, "All the more reason to fight him. See what I'm up against." The general nodded, "Fine, do whatever the hell you want. But if Vanitas cuts you into ribbons, it isn't my fault."

Roxas nodded, and got into his fighting stance- gripping his sword tightly. "You need armor!" Someone shouted in the crowd. But Roxas just shook his head. He didn't need it. The armor honestly held him back.

Vanitas got into a fighting stance too and sported a sadistic smile. The blonde bit the inside of his cheek nervously. Then it began. Vanitas broke into a sprint, sword high in the air, ready to swing. Roxas braced himself. The blackette swung his sword down at Roxas, the blonde blocked it. Then Roxas quickly brought his boot up and kicked Vanitas in the chest. That was _way _too easy. Vanitas stumbled backwards and Roxas snapped, "Don't go easy on me!"

That made Vanitas angry because he wasn't going easy on Roxas. Vanitas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and he was ready again to destroy the blonde. The blackette simply made a mistake that was it. Simple as that.

Vanitas swung his sword at Roxas's head. The blonde ducked and lunged to stab Vanitas in the torso. But the blackette quickly pointed his sword downward and blocked it. Roxas drew his sword away but Vanitas's sword followed with Roxas's. Vanitas shot his arm out and tried to stab Roxas in the head. The blondes eyes widened and he smashed his sword up and connected it with Vanitas's with a loud 'clank'. The blonde pushed up and Vanitas's sword went just above Roxas's head. The mistake that Vanitas made was leaving his torso and legs wide open. The blonde crouched and swiped his sword across Vanitas's left calf. The blackette groaned and swiftly brought his boot up to kick Roxas's in the head. But the blonde swiftly brought his free hand up and grabbed Vanitas's ankle. The blonde pushed up with his arm, raising the blackett's leg up high in the air. Vanitas tried to stab Roxas's revealed shoulder, but the blonder quickly kicked the blackett's foot that was still on the ground- out from under him. They're fight was like a dance.

Vanitas fell to the ground on his back with a growl. Roxas just stared at Vanitas and waited till his opponent got back up. If it was a real fight Roxas would have taken that opportunity to stab Vanias. But it wasn't a real fight. Meaning no death should come of it.

Vanitas shot to his feet and swung his sword at Roxas in an overhead strike. The blonde blocked it, keeping one hand on the handle, and the other at the tip of the sword for better leverage. Instead of pushing up on the sword, Roxas slid it and made the hilt hit Vanitas in the forehead. Slight blood trailed down Vanitas's forehead. Roxas took that opportunity and brought his leg up and connected it with Vanitas's side, and pushed the blackette to the ground. Vanitas was out cold. Roxas inhaled and exhaled deeply. The blonde dropped to the floor and sat on his rear. Roxas put his hands behind him and used them to prop himself up, while his legs lay straight out. Then the blonde just lay down and placed his hands behind his head and kept breathing in and out deeply. His blue orbs stared up at the blue sky with awe.

That was not an easy fight. The blonde won it by pure luck, and he knew it. Vanitas was _really _strong. The blackett's strength was overbearing. Roxas only won because he thought fast and had a clear head. Unlike Vanitas who was blinded by rage. Roxas was lucky he got no new injuries. Roxas was thankful, if this was the knight he was supposed to be facing, then he should be okay.

The blonde sighed; he continued to stare up at the sky intently; as if it had all the answers to life. Roxas didn't even notice a soldier come over and drag Vanitas away to the medical center.

After about two minutes, Roxas stood up and collected his sword from the ground. He sheathed it and looked around. All the soldiers were staring at him, shocked. Roxas scoured the soldiers and found the general, "I think I'll be okay," Roxas smiled at the general. And Luxord returned it with a proud smile. It was quiet until someone said,

"Man, I can't even beat Vanitas. But a kid can. Man I got my work cut out for me. Nice job kid," Then some other soldiers joined in.

"Wait to go Roxas!" someone cheered. Roxas smiled and without a word, left the courtyard. And headed back to find his room.

xxxXXXXXXXXXxx

'_Wonder where Sora is,'_ Roxas thought to himself as he mindlessly walked down the corridors. The blonde knew he had to be on the eighth floor, because he counted the staircases that he climbed. Maybe he wasn't on the right floor, nothing looked familiar. He turned corners, strode the hallways, but nothing seemed even remotely familiar. Then Roxas saw a recognizable face.

"Reno!" The blonde called. The redhead looked up from the ground, stopped walking, and smiled at Roxas, "Yo. What do ya want?" he asked. "I was wondering where me and Sora's room is," the blonde explained.

The redhead smirked, "You're on the wrong floor." Roxas nodded. He figured as much. Reno turned around and began stalking down the hallway where he came from, the redhead made a beckoning signal with his hand for Roxas to follow. The blonde did follow, striding behind the redhead. Reno's legs were quite longer than Roxas's, so the blonde had to speed walk as fast as he could.

Reno led him up two floors, and things began to look familiar to Roxas. But the blonde was much more interested at looking at the redhead's face. The redhead just walked with his hands behind his head, looking straight forward. Roxas continued to look.

Reno sighed, and then his eyes looked to Roxas out of the corner of his eye. The blonde's eyes widened a little at being caught staring. "Somethin' on my face?" Reno asked. Roxas shook his head, "Uh no...Just you look a lot like the King," the blonde elaborated, shrugging slightly.

The redhead nodded, "We're brothers, of course we look alike. Course Axel is my baby brother," Reno mused. If Reno was older, than why wasn't he King? "Why aren't you King?" Roxas wondered aloud. "I didn't want to be King all that much. Axel did though, he challenged me. So we fought, but I didn't want to kill him, and he didn't want to kill me. So we came to an agreement that I'd forfeit the fight, I would become a knight and still live like a prince. While Axel gets to be King. I agreed, and so, he's King," The redhead said simply. That explains it.

Reno stopped walking, and stood in front of an mahogany door. The redhead took out a ring of keys and fumbled to find the right one. Once he was successful in his search, he unlocked the door with a 'click'. He swung the door open and gestured to the blonde to go in. Roxas complied as Reno walked back the way he came. "Thanks!" Roxas yelled to the retreating redhead.

"Don't mention it," Reno said back as he disappeared down the hallway. Roxas had a feeling that Reno really meant it, to not tell anyone that he had helped him. The blonde simply shrugged it off and shut the door behind him. Roxas looked at the empty room. He started to get worried about Sora, but Roxas knew the brunette was with Riku. So he was probably okay.

The blonde didn't really want to do anything, except sleep. So Roxas walked up to the king sized bed and was ready to spring himself on to it. But he stopped and thought for a second. One, he's still hungry. Two, he hasn't bathed in days. Three he stinks. Four, he needs more practice.

To bathe now, or later? That is the question. If he took a bath and then trained. There would be no point in taking a bath in the first place. But what if he just had a lazy rest of his day? He might live or die the day after tomorrow. People say live life to the fullest, but, what life? And Roxas already proved that he could take on a knight. Hell, he already beat the knight he is supposed to be fighting. The blonde figured that next time he fought Vanitas, he could get Vanitas angry during the fight, and then the fight would have the same outcome as the last.

So, a day where Roxas takes a bath, and eat his stomach's fill. That's a good day. It would be the best one in years. '_Oh! And this castle probably has a library!' _Roxas thought with joy and excitement. The blonde really loved books.

Roxas dashed into the bathroom, stripped his clothes off, took off his bandages, and got into the grand tub. He was like a child on Christmas. He bathed before, but with gross murky water in a wooden tub. But this tub was painted a gold color on the nozzle, and the tub itself was made of marble. And of course the blonde filled the gigantic tub with bubbles beforehand.

Yep, Roxas was still childish. Like when you were little and you made Santa beards with the bubbles, and put the bubbles on top of your head too. The blonde was pretty much having the time of his life in the soothing warm water. He wiped off his fake bubble beard and laid back at the edge of the circular tub. His eyes fluttered close, he felt peaceful. The blonde sighed and began to slip into sleep.

xxxXXXXxx

Riku had told Sora that he needed to go to the restroom. The brunette complied and decided to wait while kicking the floor halfheartedly.

The silverette came back but looked extremely worried. Sora looked up to his friend, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Where is Roxas?" Riku said shakily. Sora blinked, "In our room, why?" he asked curiously.

"Because he's in danger. Now we need to find him!" Riku said urgently. The brunettes eyes narrowed, "What do you mean 'in danger'?"

"I heard some soldiers talking. Roxas badly injured a knight. A _**knight. **_The King is furious and looking for Roxas! Sora, hurting another soldier that bad, is traitorous nature. Roxas is in deep shit. Knights are the highest up, right before generals. And he injured one of Axel's best nights. We need to find him, before the King does!" Riku babbled fast. Sora's eyes widened.

Sora's eyes then filled with determination, he nodded; and Riku and Sora sprinted down the corridors to find the brunette's little brother.

xxxXXxxxxXXXXxxxx

Roxas got out of the marble tub (much to his dismay), after he woke up. The blonde found a linen black V-neck t-shirt, and tan trousers.

He currently whistled to himself as his search for the library continued. He was still searching the eighth floor. But the blonde was extremely excited to see all the old books and treasures an old library in a castle, would carry.

Roxas checked each door, but had yet to find the library. He would ask someone for help, but the castle seemed abandoned; no one was hustling about like usual.

The blonde sighed. if he were a library, where would he be? Probably in the heart of the castle. He sighed again, he's lost and he needs to find someone. Roxas walked up to the last pair of doors at the end of the hallway.

The doors were a cherry wood, and had scratches all over them. Roxas brought up a single hand and lightly traced the scratches in the wood with his fingertips. '_Wonder what happened here...' _

The blonde shrugged it off as no biggie, and pushed the two doors open wide. What was behind the doors was exactly what Roxas was looking for. The blonde stared in awe at the giant domain. It kind of reminded him of what a museum looks like.

The ceiling stories high. Red carpet. Two single steps down was leather arm chairs and couches by a hearth to the left of the room. Old selves littered the walls and random areas. The big room felt so inviting to the blonde.

It was like heaven to Roxas. He strode in, leaving the doors behind him open a crack. A smile broke out to his face and he internally squealed with glee. Roxas ran in right to one of the first selves and began taking off books that sounded awesome!

You know stories about knights, kings, pirates, wizards, damsels in distress. Once Roxas was pleased with his selection, he took the heavy stack of thick dusty books over to the chairs and couches. He set the books next to a chair, while he sat next to the hearth. Roxas pulled off the book that was on the stack of the pile. The blonde didn't know what it was; the book just had maps, notes, and random scribbles in it. But the book was really thick, got to count for something right?

Roxas's fingers glided across the navy blue cover to wipe the dust off. Much to his dismay, dust flew everywhere; making him cough. After his coughing fit was done he opened the old book.

Yellow crinkled (some burnt) papers, were revealed. Roxas looked at the cover on the inside; something was engraved in black ink. It read '_Latet in in Flamma castrum est in hyacintho divus's fabula.' _

He blinked a couple times, what does that mean? The blonde looked to the fire, seeing the charcoal burn. Roxas bravely reached into the flames and pulled out a piece of charcoal that wasn't too hot. With charcoal in hand, the blonde searched through the book for a piece of parchment that looked useless. He found one that looked like a, grocery list?

He pulled it out and began scribbling the exact words that the cover of the book had etched on it. The words could have been nothing special; but Roxas felt like they were. He pocketed the parchment and went back to looking through the book. The entire fucking book was in a language he couldn't read. He could only read and write his own language because….because Cloud made sure to teach him and Sora. So they 'could get a job and be literate'.

Roxas had no idea what anything in the book meant. But he felt it was important. Roxas looked through the rest of the pages, but they were blank. There was only notes and a, map? In the book. So the blonde saw no problem in pocketing its contents.

The blonde looked through the other books and scrolled through the novels for a while. Some stories spiked his interest (and were in his language); so he took the two books with him. He held them in his arms and began his descent back to his room. He may have left marks in the hallways to find his way back. Marks like- turning a statue or a painting cockeyed.

He whistled to himself and fixed the artifacts that lined the walls on the way; the ones he messed with.

Roxas set the books on the dresser and he sat on his and Sora's bed. The blonde lay back at the foot of the bed. The edge digging in to his knees, and his legs dangling over the side. He sighed. What to do, what to do?

He was still famished. Well, he hadn't eaten in days, so why shouldn't he be hungry? Yeah that sounds about right, he's hungry and bored. Time to eat.

So that's what Roxas did.

xxXXXXXxxxxXXXXX

"RIKU!" Someone roared behind them. Riku and Sora were sprinting down corridors, still looking for Roxas. Riku stopped though and turned his head to look over his shoulder to see who called his name so angrily.

What Riku saw could have made him piss his self. It was Axel. The King's face was red, his eyes narrowed, sparks flickered in the King's hand; threatening to turn to full blown fire. Axel stalked down the hallway like an angry parent ready to scold their child.

The redhead stopped in front of the two while Sora and Riku turned to face the King while exchanging worried glances to one another.

"Where is your pest of a little brother?" Axel growled, poking a finger into Sora's chest. The brunette frowned, "I don't know." The redheads eyes blazed and he gripped the boy's shirt collar. "Do _not _lie to me!"

"I'm not!" Sora retorted, holding his hands up in defense, eyes wide as saucers. Riku stuttered, putting his hand by Axel's but not touching the King. "My King, he answers truthfully, we are looking for Roxas ourselves," Riku pleaded. Axel growled and let go of Sora's collar harshly- causing the brunette to stumble a bit.

"Take me to their room, that's an _order. _Not a request," Axel barked to Riku, still seething. The silverette sighed, but nodded. Sora looked to his friend in exasperation, "Riku!"

But Riku knew better, so he ignored Sora. No matter how much he felt terrible. The silverette really hoped that Axel wouldn't hurt Roxas.

Riku led them in silence, but when they got to the bedchambers of the twins; they found it empty.

xxXXXXXXXxx

Roxas was quite proud of himself; he successfully found the dining hall. And he was once again digging his teeth into a chicken drumstick. Chicken was the blonde's favorite meat. He greedily ripped the meat off the bone and swallowed hurriedly while he gulped down a weird juice that was called, Flanta juice; out of a goblet.

The people in the room were eyeing Roxas, but the blonde couldn't care less. Until someone ruined his peace and sat next to him.

"Hey Blondie," the man smirked, taking a seat next to Roxas. But the blonde ignored the man and continued eating. The man frowned. But continued, "Wanna fight?"

Roxas shook his head 'no'. And continued on with ignoring the man. The man's frown deepened and he decided to be an ass to get to the blonde. He was going to do what it took to get Roxas in a fighting mood. The soldier looked to his other buddies-who were giving him thumbs up and snickering. The man smiled smugly to them and began, "Ooooh I see. You don't want to fight me 'cause you need your energy so you can live through that fight of yours. But I reckon you won't last five minutes and then the King will torture you,"

Roxas stopped eating, his eye twitched, and he glared out of the corner of his eye. The blonde stood up from the table and walked away, but the soldier followed him.

"I mean it's sad that you're gonna lose, that brother of yours is quite the cutie. Yourself too. Wouldn't mind to do some things if you know what I mean," The soldier laughed maliciously. The blonde was ready to snap.

"Too bad because of you, you will both die. Maybe we could do 'it' before all that, will your brother be in on the fun too? I've always dreamed of havin' twins in bed-" The man put his arm around Roxas and just as the man had finished his sentence, things happened way to quick. The blonde had snapped.

Roxas elbowed the soldier in the gut, _hard. _The blonde stepped back a few paces, facing the man. Roxas sprang up from his left leg, the blonde brought his right leg and kicked the man across the face. His foot collided with the man's jaw, and then Roxas gracefully landed on his right foot, and then spun around to face the man again. Roxas didn't even know he could do that. It was all as quick as a flash. The soldier stumbled and held his aching jaw while he grunted. This was what the man wanted, wasn't it. The soldier's hand reached to his back to pull out his sword but Roxas was quick to knee the man in the gut. The air was knocked out of the man and gripped his gut from the brutal assault. So much strength in such a little body.

Roxas went to kick the man again but strong arms wrapped around the blonde's torso and pulled him back. The blonde turned around and saw it was Riku who had pulled him back. The silverette had a deep frown on his face. Roxas panted and regained his senses. Riku let him go and Roxas turned around to see Axel and Sora, standing in the dining halls doorway. Axel was basically steaming with anger.

Riku leaned in behind the blonde's head and quietly whispered 'run'. The blonde didnt need to be told twice. Roxas's eyes widenedand he ran to the bar. Because, bars have mead cellars. And cellars have doors that lead outside. He ran so fast, ducked under soldiers who tried to grab him. A man's arm tried to wrap around him but the blonde used the soldiers arm as a boost and jumped up on a table. The blonde ran on top of the tables to the bar, almost there. Then he heard and 'Ah!' A familiar voice had said it too. He haulted and turned around to see Axel, gripping Sora's hair furiously. Sora looked into Roxas's eyes. The brunette's gaze was filled with hard determination and said 'go, now!'

But Roxas couldn't. "Sora!" the blonde jumped off of the table and ran over. Surprised when no one made a move to grab him. Sora scowled, his little brother was such an idiot sometimes.

But Sora was the only thing Roxas had left. Sora was all he was fighting for.

Roxas ran up to the King, although the blonde wasn't too sure what to do once he got there. But he ended up there. And Axel didn't even hesitate to grab Roxas's locks too. The blonde yelped and cringed. After all Roxas has been through, and a simple tug on his hair hurt.

Roxas brought his hands up and desperately tried to get Axel's hand off. The redhead ignored the twins cringing, and dragged them down the corridors. Luxord and Arthur who were in the dining hall at the time, looked to each other in worry.

At one point the King got so annoyed with them struggling, so he kicked the brother's legs out from under them- and the twins fell to the ground. Now Axel was literally dragging them by the hair. Axel really confused Roxas. One minute the redhead wanted a relationship, the next going to kill him and his brother.

"Le-let go!" Sora screamed in pain. The brothers tried to stand back up and walk, but the redhead's strides were too fast. Axel ignored them and threw the doors to the outside open. The King even dragged them down the steps, through the fields and into a dungeon. A dungeon!

Sora and Roxas really began to panic and kick. The King brought them past jail cells and into a small room behind a metal door. The room had shackles hanging on the walls and a metal table in the middle of the small grey bricked square room. The blonde looked to the table and saw knifes and other assortments of torture devices. Roxas's eyes widened and he thrashed about harder.

Axel dragged the twins over to a wall, he pinned Roxas between his body and the wall, while he fumbled with putting a shackle around the struggling brunette. But the redhead managed to shackle Sora to the wall successfully.

Axel grabbed Roxas's wrist and pinned them above the blonde's head, using one hand. The redhead's eyes glared, while Roxas stared wide eyed back into the emerald iris's. He gulped and tried to wiggle free.

"Did. You. Injure. A. Knight. Named, Vanitas?" Axel interrogated slowly, each word dripping with fury. Roxas bit his tongue but nodded.

Axel scowled and left without another word. Roxas's knees gave out and he dropped to the floor. He showed fear. He was weak. _Sorry Cloud. _

xXXXXXXXXxxxXXXX

**A/N: OMG! I was supposed to have this up a while ago. But school, homework, missed assignments. All that jazz. Life sucks sometimes. I was gonna fit two days into this chapter but it was already 6,854 words. My brain is mush!**

**Thanks and review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Heyyyyy! I don't know when this will be up so sorry if its late!**

**Alright, I got my Roxas necklace on, my Roxas plushie, my Kingdom Hearts two t-shirt on….LETS DO THIS**

**Warning: Blah blahhhhh YAOI in this chapter!. HARD YAOI (later though…) so don't like, don't read.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own**

**xxxXxxxxx**

**The next day (Afternoon)**

Roxas's eyes opened, he moved his blue orbs to look where he was. Gross, his eyelids had that yellow gunk on them. The stuff that when you were little everyone said that the 'sandman' put there. The blonde probably got it from crying so much. The fact that Roxas would soon die, Sora would soon die, Cloud was dead, and that there was nothing left in the world for him instead of his twin, hit him hard.

Roxas groaned and willed his body up to a sitting position; he looked around and noticed he was still in the torture room. "Sora?" the blonde called. He heard a slight groan behind him; he turned around and saw that Sora was still shackled to the wall. Roxas stood up and walked over to the brunette and hugged him.

"It's going to be okay Sora. I promise," Roxas whispered lovingly to his brother. But Sora scoffed, "Wasn't I the one who told you that first and you didn't believe me?" the brunette smirked. Roxas pulled back from his brother and saw the smirk, the blonde smirked himself. That's Sora for you, making the bleakest situation seem all fine and dandy.

"Well, seeing as that we are in a torture room," Roxas trailed off, "I have no reason to believe you." The blonde snickered while Sora pouted. But the brunette giggled a bit too. Roxas bent down and retrieved his father's dagger from his boot.

The blonde took the knife and began fiddling with the shackle locks. Sora grew quiet and averted his gaze to the floor- while getting a solemn look. Roxas took notice but tried to ignore it. If Sora didn't say anything, then he doesn't want to talk about it

"A thief?" The brunette spoke up. Roxas's eyes widened slightly and he stopped his movements and looked at his brother's face. The blonde didn't answer though and returned to trying to get the shackles off.

"Roxas...It's okay," The brunette said softly. Roxas's eyes widened again and stopped to look to his brother. Sora was looking him straight in the eye, smiling reassuringly. The blonde blinked, then broke out smiling too. The blonde fiddled with the shackles a bit more and finally they clicked open. Sora stretched his aching muscles then brought Roxas into a hug.

"Just tell me next time Roxas, okay?"

"Mhm."

The door then opened and the twins pulled apart to see Arthur standing in the doorway. The man cracked a smile, "Come on you two. Let's get you fancied up for tonight."

Roxas cocked his head to the side slightly, "'Fancied up' for what?" he asked. Arthur snickered, "Your party of course!" the man exclaimed excitedly.

Party, what party?

xxxxxXXX

Well the twins found out soon enough. Axel had invited a bunch of important people to witness the blonde's fight tomorrow. And they were holding a party in the castle. Also known as Roxas's funeral (it's what the blonde thought of it anyways). So in other words a bunch of rich people were spending the night at the castle while a party is being held and then in the morning Roxas would fight for his and his brother's life. Brilliant.

So that being said, Roxas and Sora had to look 'appropriate'. So the blonde and brunette were dragged to their room and were given baths. And yes, they had a maid in there with them- scrubbing them clean. This of course made Roxas and Sora blush crazily. Then the twins were being fitted for suits.

The maids took Roxas's and Sora's measurements and then returned with suits. The blonde was soon dressed in a white button up shirt with a black tuxedo over coat, black slacks, shiny black dress shoes, and a black tie. Sora had on a white button up shirt, a navy blue blazer over it, black slacks, and brown leather dress shoes. Then the maids bid their farewells and said Arthur and Luxord would be up to their room soon to teach them 'fine dining'.

And true to their word, Luxord and Arthur showed up and dragged the twins to a room with a fireplace at the end of the large long cherry wood table, with many seats, a seat at the end looked like a mini throne, royal red carpet, and gold statues. The blonde guessed that was where Axel dined.

Roxas sat to Sora's left while Luxord stood in the middle of them watching their every move.

"Okay," Luxord began, "You're eating salad, so you want to use your salad fork. Which one do you use?" he finished. Roxas looked at the forks, why was there so many? Wait, the blonde's grandfather had taught him this. Little spoon you use for soup, big spoon the main course, two times on a fork is a shrimp fork, three times on a fork is for the appetizer, and four times on a fork is for the main course.

The blonde smiled at his knowledge. This wasn't so hard! Roxas picked up the fork with three times and sat back while Sora tried to make his choice.

"Roxas!" Luxord barked making the blonde jolt. Roxas looked up to Luxord who ordered, "Fix your damn posture!"

Roxas complied and immediately straightened his shoulders and sat up. Sora took that opportunity to look over to see what fork Roxas picked, then the brunette picked that fork too. Obviously Sora felt that learning those things wasn't important, so he didn't pay attention.

"Correct." Luxord confirmed. "Alright next. Say I offer you the bowl with mash potatoes or something, and you accept it. What do you say? And what would I say?" he asked.

Roxas thought for a moment, "Thank you and your welcome?" the blonde was unsure. While the brunette was still stumped by the question.

"Good Roxas, very good." Luxord smiled, but then the blonde man turned to Sora and frowned, "Take note on your brother's answer." Sora smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head. Arthur strode over and sat in front of Roxas, while Luxord made his way around the giant table to sit in front of Sora.

"Alright let us begin our meal and Luxord and I will correct you of any errors," Arthur told them. The twins nodded simultaneously.

Roxas began eating his salad and so did Sora, they frowned. The twins absolutely hated salads. They didn't know why, but they just did. The brunette took a bite and made a small 'yuck' sound.

"Sora that is rude. _Never _do that," Arthur snapped, holding his own fork that had lettuce on it by his mouth. Sora nodded shyly and looked sincerely sorry.

They finished their salad without much event. Once Roxas slouched and then got snapped at, but other than that it was uneventful.

Then the main course came. Which was a giant turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, string beans, and buttered rolls. Scrum-diddly-umptious.

And then the lemon meringue pie came and then the meal was over.

And after hours (not exaggerating) the lessons ended. Well...the lessons didn't exactly...end. Roxas and Sora got sick of it, and ran off like children.

The blonde and the brunette laughed as they sped down the hall. Angry bickering could be heard from Luxord and Arthur who were chasing them. The two twins closed their eyes smiling brightly; forgetting about what awaited them tomorrow.

"Hahahah!" they laughed joyfully. Looking to each other, then Roxas collided with something and he fell back with an 'oof'. The blonde stumbled a bit but recomposed himself. Roxas and Sora looked up to see what the blonde had collided with.

Roxas was immediately frozen in place to see that he had bumped into, none other than Axel. The blonde's eyes widened and he began to quickly babble an excuse, "I- uh-"

"Sir!" Roxas heard Luxord yell from behind them. The blonde sighed with relief. Luxord and Arthur walked up and stood between Roxas and Axel, while panting from trying to catch the twins.

"Your majesty-" Arthur began, but was cut off when Axel raised his hand up.

"It is okay Arthur. But, you may like to know that the guest should be arriving in five minutes. So be on your way." And with that Axel walked past the two generals, his gaze connected with Roxas's as he walked past. The blonde glared back, earning a smirk form Axel. Roxas heard Sora sigh next to him. "Come on Roxas," The brunette grumbled, grabbing the blonde's shoulder and pushing him to follow the generals down the hallway.

After Roxas was absolutely sure that the King was out of range, he asked Luxord and Arthur, "Do I have to attend this?" Hope filling his voice. A room where a bunch of rich people are literally waltzing around didn't sound fun to Roxas in the least.

"Yes, you have to attend. And I swear, if you and Sora run away again I will personally shove my sword down your throat. Got it?" Arthur threatened halfheartedly. Roxas and Sora groaned in response, but followed along.

xxxXXXXXXXxxx

By the time the two generals and the twins arrived, at least a hundred people were there. All dressed in tux and dresses alike.

Sora and Roxas were led to one of the many tables that had a red cloth over it, plates, forks, knives, spoons, glasses, napkins, and an assortment of black roses in a vase on top. Everyone danced to a slow song while the brothers just sat and waited for food to be served.

"Hello," a soft voice spoke. Roxas turned around in his chair to see a beautiful girl. She had long bleached blonde hair that lay over her left shoulder, sapphire blue eyes like Roxas's, and was wearing a white dress to match her flawless pale skin. Roxas blushed slightly, "Hello," he replied. She gestured her hand to the empty seat next to Roxas, "May I have a seat?" she asked sweetly. His blush deepened, "Uh, sure."

She smiled and took a seat, "So, what's your name?" the girl inquired.

"Roxas," he smiled back. She placed a hand over her heart lightly and stated her name, "My name, is Namine."

"Namine…" Roxas repeated smiling wider. Namine's smile turned sheepish, "Would you…" she trailed off, "Would you like to dance?" she asked with more determination that time. Roxas's eyes widened but he quickly nodded his head yes. Namine held out her right hand for him to take. Roxas looked to his brother, who gave him a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Roxas rubbed the back of his head nervously, but took her hand and lifted her to her feet. The waltz was another skill that Cloud had thought necessary to teach them.

They made their way to the dance floor. Roxas was too nervous to really do anything though before an actual conversation. But apparently that didn't fly with Namine, because she immediately placed her hands on Roxas's shoulders. He didn't want to seem like a dead fish, so he placed his hands on her hips. Well…not her hips per se. Roxas actually put his hands on her waist (he wasn't comfortable with putting his hands on her hips). They spun in circles and followed, one two three, one two three. She smiled widely and so did Roxas. But as the room was spinning slowly, his blue eyes caught sight of red hair and green eyes, it was of course the Flamma King. Axel had on a black tail coat, white long-sleeved button up shirt with a red vest over it, black slacks, black shiny boots, a black tie, and a red and black crown laid atop his head. Axel was staring straight back at the blonde, smirking. The blonde's eyes widened and panic overcame him. His eyes darted around the room for an escape. Roxas quickly led Namine and himself to the middle of the dance floor, out of reach from the redhead.

Namine cocked her head to the side thoughtfully, "So, Roxas. Tell me about yourself."

Roxas's forehead slightly creased as he thought, "Well, this party, ball, funeral thing- whatever you want to call it. Is for me." That's all Roxas could really think of. He wasn't going to share personal information with a girl he just met. Namine's eyebrows shot up, "This ball is for you? Then that means you're the one fighting Vanitas tomorrow?" she concluded. Roxas nodded. Her face grew solemn, then hopeful, "Well good luck," Namine smiled.

"So what about yourself?" Roxas inquired. Namine hummed, "Weeeell. I'm the princess of the Ludunt Kingdom," she replied simply. His eyes widened and he hurriedly put more distance between their bodies, making her snicker at his nervousness. Roxas's eyes flicked to behind Namine, where Luxord was approaching. Roxas stopped dancing and so did Namine, she turned around to Luxord. The man had his arms folded and was smirking. "Well, well, well, Roxas. Dancing with Namine I see," His smirk turned into a knowing grin. Roxas and Namine both turned red and smiled sheepishly. Namine held out her hands in defense, "It's not like that fath-" she stopped abruptly, like catching herself before she made a mistake. Roxas raised a questioning eyebrow but was ignored. Luxord broke out into fits of laughter, "Come along Namine" he placed his hand on her shoulder, "Bye for now, Roxas." He smirked and with that left.

Left Roxas to stand in the huge crowd of people who were spinning elegantly all about. The blonde tried to look for a way out of the crowd when someone abruptly grabbed his hips and spun him around. Roxas glared at the person who had did it, but his eyes were met with a torso. The blonde looked up and noticed the person who had grabbed him was indeed a man, with caramel colored skin, gold eyes, long white hair, and the man was wearing a black suit.

The blonde's eyes narrowed even more and he clenched his teeth. The man smirked and begun to spin Roxas around. Funny, the blonde did not remember agreeing to dance. Asshole.

Roxas also took notice that the man's hands kept traveling south while he tried to struggle away. "So," the man purred, smirking, "What's your name?"

"My name is Luxord." Roxas replied. Yup, he lied about his name. That way if the pervert came looking for him, he would have to take it up with the fucking Flamma general.

"Luxord," The man purred again. The boy did not enjoy hearing Luxord's name being used like that, Roxas made a face full of disgust.

"King Xemnas of the Luna Kingdom," Someone growled. The man referred to as 'Xemnas' stopped for a second, giving Roxas time to wiggle free. Xemnas was the fucking King of the Luna Kingdom? Great Roxas just keeps attracting royalty, doesn't he? The blonde turned to see that it was of course Axel who had growled the man's name. Xemnas's eyes narrowed at seeing Axel. The redhead ignored it and turned to Roxas, "May I have this dance?" The Flamma King asked, holding his hand out to Roxas to take. The blonde looked between the sneering man and the smirking redhead. Which one would you choose?

Roxas swallowed all of his self-pride and took Axel's hand. The Flamma King smiled in delight while Xemnas stomped off in anger. Axel placed his hands on Roxas's hips, and the blonde struggled to put his hands on Axel's shoulders. Bloody King was too tall. Roxas mumbled bitterly under his breath, looking to the side.

"Sorry." Axel spoke up. Roxas blinked and looked up to the redhead, "Huh?" Axel sighed, "I said, I am _sorry_," the King repeated with more force. Roxas gave Axel a deadpanned look, "Sorry for what? Your majesty," the blonde bit out. Axel glared, "I'm sorry for mistreating you and your brother. Fuck you're lucky I am apologizing to you at all. If I didn't like you, you would probably of gotten _a lot _worse than a simple hair pull. Consider yourself fucking lucky," the redhead seethed.

Roxas blinked a few times. Axel was right. If the King didn't care about him, then Roxas would have gotten a way worse punishment for injuring Vanitas. Hell, Axel was probably even in trouble for not properly punishing him. The blonde nodded in understanding, which Axel surprisingly returned with a smile. Roxas could feel his heart slightly flutter at the charming smile. Wait, did the blonde actually..._feel _for the King? He began to panic. And with that, Roxas was grabbed once again, by the wrist.

He looked to see who had done it, and found Hayner. Hayner gave him a thumbs up and dashed off through the crowd, dragging Roxas with him- leaving an amused Flamma King. The blondes darted through the crowd and out of the doors from the grand ballroom.

"Hayner! Where are we going?!" Roxas asked exasperated, but Hayner just kept dragging him.

xxXXXXXXXxxx

**(Meanwhile)**

"Hey, um. Would you like to dance?" Sora looked up to see a stunning looking Riku holding out his hand to him. Riku was dressed in a white long-sleeved button up shirt with a dark purple dress jacket over it, black trousers, and brown leather boots. The brunette's mouth hung open as he gawked at Riku's outstretched hand. Sora after a moment closed his mouth and took Riku's hand. The couple both smiling as they made their way over to dance.

xxxXXXXXXxx

**(Back to Roxas)**

In minutes Hayner had taken Roxas outside to the grounds and they were running down a hill. The cold air of night fall clung to his skin and made him have a cold sheen of sweat. The brown-eyed blonde stopped suddenly and the blue-eyed blonde skidded to a hault.

Hayner turned to Roxas and gripped his biceps tightly, "Look Roxas. I don't want to see you dead tomorrow. There is a tunnel at the bottom of this hill, go through it and I bid you a farewell," and with that the brown-eyed blonde started to run back up the hill. Roxas's eyes narrowed and quickly grabbed Hayner's wrist.

The brown-eyed blonde looked back to him, raising an eyebrow. "If you think I am going to run away, then you have another thing coming. I am not a coward," Roxas snapped. Hayner's eyes widened slightly.

"I can't change your mind?"

"No. And besides I can't leave Sora."

Hayner nodded sadly, "Ok, let's head back then."

Roxas smiled and playfully punched Hayner in the arm, "Yeah, you brought me out into the fucking cold for no reason," he laughed and so did Hayner.

xxXXxxxx

When they made it back to the castle, Roxas told Hayner to go and do his own thing, while he would retire for the night.

The blonde had no idea where to go. Roxas just kept climbing floor after floor. The only thing on his mind was sleep. And of course the fact he might die the next morning. And Sora might die as well because of his carelessness. The blonde sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He stopped walking up the stairs mid-way in the stair case. Roxas's hands clenched into fist at his sides, while his chin tucked into his chest as he grit his teeth.

Mourning isn't going to help anything. But sleep will, right? So he kept climbing the steps, intent on sleeping in the next bedroom he stumbled upon.

Roxas only had to walk up a few more steps and then there was only one door at the end of the steps, no hallway. He must be in a tower. The blonde pushed open the big door wide open and strode in. The smell of burning wood and cinnamon assaulted his nose as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply it smelt...good. He exhaled, opened his eyes, and looked around.

The room itself looked a lot grander than the other rooms (if that were even possible). The room had one gigantic black and red bed, black and red leather sofa, a cherry wood writing desk- that was decorated by maps and such alike, black leather seat at the writing desk, oh and let's not forget...jewels and gold everywhere. The room just gave off comforting vibes to Roxas. So the blonde let the big bed lull him over.

Roxas stalked over to the bed and tugged on his black tie. The tie fell to the ground along with Roxas's black overcoat. Then the blonde sat on the bed and peeled off his snazzy dress shoes, they fell to the ground with a 'thunk' each. He proceeded to unbuttoning the first three buttons on his white shirt. After he was successful, he stood once again and peeled back the covers to the bed and slipped under them. Roxas laid on the bed as he tried to escape troubling thoughts about what awaited tomorrow.

Roxas's eyes began to flutter close, and he let himself slip into the world of sleep.

xxxxxXXXXXXXxxx

**(A couple hours later. 2:00 am)**

"What the hell are you doing in here?!" No reply. "Hey!" This time the man picked up a pillow and threw it at the blonde's head. Still no reply. Axel sighed as he sat on the edge of his bed. He ran a hand through his hair in distress. The King's eyes then flicked to the sleeping boy in his bed.

Roxas was sleeping peacefully in the King's bed. His eyes closed- revealing long eye lashes, his mouth slightly open, letting out soft snores as his chest rose then fell. Axel grumbled, why did this kid of all kids have to be so, _cute_?

The redhead groaned and walked over to the other side of the bed and laid on his back next to the blonde. Axel placed his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling calmly.

The King's face turned serious and thoughtful. He found it so odd, why does he find himself liking the blonde so much? Maybe the boy just amuses him? No… that can't be it. Then what is it? Axel hadn't liked someone even remotely as much as he liked Roxas already in a while. Oh and that other thing with him mildly hurting the blonde, the King admitted it- he had anger issues.

Axel let out another sigh and rolled over to his side, facing the boy. The redhead grinned and lightly ran his fingers through Roxas's soft honey locks. The blonde slightly stirred in his sleep, then buried his face between pillows, Axel chuckled and drew his hand away. The King returned to looking back at the ceiling.

"You got to win that fight tomorrow, Roxas."

xxXXXXXXXXxxx

**(The next morning. The time of the fight.)**

His eyes groggily opened and he looked around, Roxas barely remembered going to sleep in the room. The blonde groaned as he put his hands on the mattress below him and tried to push himself up to a sitting position. But alas, Roxas found a pair of strong arms wrapped around his torso.

Roxas began to panic, and then he turned around and found that the arms belonged to the King. Then he began to really panic. Axel was sleeping calmly with his arms wrapped around Roxas, as if the blonde was his teddy bear. Oh and there was another thing, Axel was _shirtless. _Meaning, the blonde could see Axel in all of his six pack glory. _Damn Axel has hot hips. _The blonde turned completely red, did he just think that? Roxas began to struggle wildly out of the King's grip to the best of his ability. But to his dismay the King only tightened his grip, bringing Roxas back down to the bed, the blonde's back against Axel's chest. The blonde was also surprised to find that Axel's body warmth was abnormally warm.

"Morning, _Roxy_," The King slurred, his hot breath hitting the blonde's ear. Roxas let out a silent squeak and began kicking, which only made the King tighten his grip on the blonde.

"Stop squirming. I'm exhausted and you're comfortable," Axel grumbled. The blonde stopped, he craned his neck back to look the redhead in the eye, only to find the King looking down at him hazily. Axel rested his chin on top of the blonde's head, while Roxas's head was back against the King's neck. Roxas frowned, Axel chuckled. The laughing made vibrations in the redhead's throat, which sent vibrations into the blonde's skull. It was actually rather comforting to the blonde. The man's laughter was smooth and deep instead of being malicious like usual. Roxas rather liked it.

Wait, what was he thinking?! Roxas blamed hormones. That's got to be it. The blonde began to squirm again but found his attempt fruitless.

Axel just laughed harder and sat up into a sitting position, his legs outstretched in front of him. The red head pulled Roxas with him, the blonde sat between Axel's legs, his back against the redhead's torso. The man's arms slinked around Roxas's waist while the blonde gripped at the arms, trying to pry them off.

The King laughed and he removed one arm. Axel placed his free hand on Roxas's forehead and tilted the blonde's head back. The King looked down into the blonde's deadpanned look. Axel smirked, "Hey Roxy."

"Pedophile."

Axel snorted, "I guess that's sort of true." The blonde frowned, "There's no 'sort of' about it. You like me and I am sixteen. You are what, twenty-four I think you said? That makes you a pedophile," Roxas stated plainly. Axel made a fake shocked noise and pressed a hand over his heart, "Awww Roxy! You remembered my age! That warms my heart," he smiled cockily. Roxas smirked, "You mean your nonexistent heart?" The King faked hurt, "You wound me!" The blonde couldn't help but laugh at the man's strangeness. Roxas now knew why the King interested him. Axel was different, so different it was hard to figure him out.

Axel's cocky smile turned into a seductive grin, he pushed the blonde down so Roxas's back was against Axel's abs. The King bent down and kissed Roxas on the lips.

The blonde's eyes widened so much that they basically bulged out of his head. He turned bright red and Roxas immediately began to squirm again and push the redhead away from him. Wonderful! That was the blonde's first kiss! And for one it was stolen by a man, and a King at that. Axel pulled back with a triumphant smirk plastered on his face. Man Roxas was just too adorable. But no the less, he let Roxas get up.

The blonde quickly got off the bed but in his blind panic he fell to the floor, all of the beds covers being dragged down with him. This of course made Axel die laughing.

Roxas's head poked out from the pile of covers on the ground and frowned at the redhead.

Axel looked to the blushing, pouting blonde on the floor. The redhead smiled and he got up from the bed and walked over to Roxas. He bent down next to the blonde and held his hand out.

The blonde eyed the outstretched hand as if his choice would affect his entire life. And it actually did. Roxas reluctantly took the hand and Axel raised him to his feet in one fluid motion.

And only then did the blonde notice Axel in all of his shirtless glory. The King was sort of lanky looking, but still muscular. So yeah, of course the blonde just stared. Axel smirked, "Like what you see?" the redhead gestured to his body, smirking widely. Roxas snapped out of his trance and looked back up into the redhead's eyes, the blonde's blush deepened. Axel smiled and his arms shot out, grabbing the blonde and bringing Roxas into a tight hug. The redhead picked up Roxas into the air and began swaying them back and forth. "Awwww! You're too cute Roxy!" The King cheered.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Roxas managed to snap while being shook back in forth in a death squeeze.

Axel's smile turned into a dark smile. He dropped the blonde onto the bed. Roxas landed on his back onto the bed with a slight yelp. He looked up the King, Axel's eyes were glossy and he had a seductive smirk plastered on his face. The redhead moved closer and climbed on top of Roxas. The King placed each of his hands beside Roxas's head, one of the redhead's knees rested beside the blonde's outer right thigh. While the King's knee rested...in between Roxas's thighs. Of course, nudging the blonde's crotch. The blonde bit his bottom lip hard to stifle any sort of sound as the knee rubbed his...you know.

"I already told you, _Roxas,_" Axel began, rubbing his knee against the blonde's crotch more for good measure. The blonde felt so violated; obviously he had never had any sort of experience like that before. "I told you, that I like you, and _want _you. And being King I usually get what I want. I admit that I really like you, and I have no idea why the fuck I do. And when I hurt you earlier, it was because I was mad. I admit it, I lose my temper easily," he smirked.

"So Roxas, win that fight of yours today, okay?" But it wasn't a question. Roxas glared, "I'm not fighting for you. Besides, do I get a say in this? I mean being with you?" The blonde asked. Axel laughed darkly and leaned down close to Roxas's face, their noses almost touching.

"Of course you get a say in this Roxy. But, if you say no, you should know I don't give up that easily," His smirk broadened.

Roxas smirked back, "Challenge accepted."

Axel confidently leaned even closer to Roxas, and began nibbling on the blonde's ear lobe. Roxas let out a gasp and held back a moan as he pushed on the King's chest with all his might. But the King didn't stop this time, instead he grasped both of the blonde's wrist and pinned them above Roxas's head- using one hand. Axel's other hand snaked under Roxas's shirt and began exploring the blonde's torso. The redhead's mouth moved to Roxas's neck and began sucking on a patch of skin. The blonde panted and tried to squirm but he couldn't get free. Roxas was honestly frightened; the King wasn't stopping like last time. And it was all going too fast too quick.

Axel began to expertly lick up the blonde's neck, from collar bone to jaw. The King's hand began to move south to the blonde's pants. Then the redhead suddenly stopped when Roxas let out a specific loud moan. Mission accomplished.

Axel pulled back suddenly, and admired his work. The blonde was completely flushed. He smirked and got off of Roxas. The blonde was confused at the loss of contact.

"Challenge accepted," Axel said too. Then left the room.

Roxas blinked at the redhead's retreating form. Fuck! He let himself be vulnerable.

He sighed and began his descent back to his and Sora's room. But when he stood up, he noticed he had an erm… problem between his legs. So he went to the King's bathroom and took care of it first. Gross.

xxxXXXXXXXxx

Roxas made it successfully to his and Sora's room. And was immediately bombarded by questions from his older brother about where he has been. The blonde casually blew the questions off and then sat on his bed and sighed. It was quiet for a few seconds, but of course the quiet was ruined when the door flew open.

Roxas looked to see who had opened the door so abruptly and saw Arthur, with shackles. The man looked depressed and defeated.

"Time to go."

xxxXXXXXx

In fifteen or so minutes, Roxas was dressed in clean clothes and his leather armor, handed his sword, and brought down to the throne room hall. The same room Roxas, Sora, and Hayner were first brought to upon arrival at the castle. Except the difference was, many chairs lined the walls with occupants seated in them. Sora had been taken to the dungeons to await his possible fate. While Roxas stood before the entire rich guest ready to fight Vanitas.

Everyone was staring at him (everyone being a thousand rich guest waiting to see the fight), which made the blonde feel uneasy. The worst of it was when he looked around the room and found Axel perched up on his throne, smirking at him. Roxas gulped, what was he going to do?

Roxas looked down and found the blue amulet his father had left for him was glowing bright sapphire blue like when Roxas fought Arthur. The blonde thought it was a simple trick of the eyes then, but now, as clear as day- it was definitely shining a bright blue. What the hell? The blonde fiddled with the blue stone of the amulet, rolling it between his thumb and pointer finger. But Roxas was brought out of his observation when the King stood from his throne, holding his hands up for silence to come. The blonde quickly tucked the amulet into his shirt, concealing it.

Everyone in the room hushed as Axel spoke.

"Today we gather to witness the fight between a boy and a knight. To the boy, whose name is Roxas, I wish you luck. To my knight Vanitas, I wish you luck as well. Roxas is fighting today for his life and his older brother Sora's life as well. If Roxas loses this fight he will suffer a fate worse than death, and his brother will die as well. If Roxas wins this fight he will become my soldier and his brother Sora will be allowed to live here. If Vanitas wins, he will be allowed to kill Roxas however he pleases, and Vanitas will be promoted to a general." Axel finished his long boring speech and at back down on his throne and nodded to Vanitas. The blackett made his way over to Roxas, ready to fight. Axel gritted his teeth, he hoped above all other hopes that the blonde would win.

As Vanitas approached Roxas, the blonde took note that Vanitas was also bandaged a lot like Roxas was. At least then it's sort of a fair fight.

Roxas began studying Vanitas, while trying to think of a strategy. Vanitas had on heavy metal armor and was carrying two swords. Speed, seems to always be Roxas's advantage.

Vanitas's hands reached to his back and each of his hands gripped the two swords that lay sheathed criss cross on his back. The blackett smiled evilly as he unsheathed his two swords and held them out in front of him, getting into a fighting stance. Everyone in the room immediately quieted and looked intently at the pair who were ready to fight.

All that you could hear in the room was the shaky breath that Roxas let out as he unsheathed his own sword and got into his fighting stance as well. Vanitas's eyes burned with bloodlust and the longing for revenge. The blonde gulped. It wasn't really fair that he only had one sword to fight with.

As if Arthur thought the same thing, the man placed a sword on the ground and walked away from it. Then Luxord casually walked over to the sword on the ground and kicked it. The sword spun and skidded, then came to a stop at Roxas's feet. The blonde looked over to Arthur and Luxord with a crooked smile. Arthur and Luxord returned the smile with a proud smile of their own.

Roxas bent down and picked up the sword at his feet. The sword was identical to the one Malcolm had given him. Except this one had a white handle. Roxas gripped his new sword in his left hand, and his black one in his right. He was ready to fight.

Vanitas sneered and ran at the blonde, twirling his swords high in the air, ready to slice Roxas. The blonde blocked one of Vanitas's swords with one of his own, then Roxas pointed one of his own sword downwards to block the blackett's other sword.

Vanitas sneered again and jumped back a couple paces. Then he surged at the blonde. Roxas didn't even have time to dodge. Vanitas's swords made an 'x' at Roxas's neck. All that the blackett had to do was slice his swords and then he would have slit the blonde's throat. It seemed everyone was on the edge of their seats watching.

The blonde quickly brought his swords up and jammed them between his neck and Vanitas's swords. Roxas tried to push the swords apart while the blackett gritted his teeth and tried to will his swords and the blonde's into Roxas's throat.

The blonde ground his teeth too. He couldn't hold Vanitas off much longer. The blonde, without even thinking, brought his knee up and kneed Vanitas in the gut. The blackett stumbled backward and Roxas took that as his chance. He jumped up from his left foot and used his right foot to kick one of Vanitas's swords out of his hand. The blackett's sword went flying out of either of their reach, and crashed to the ground with a loud clang.

Roxas did not like Vanitas, or himself using two swords. It was too difficult. The blonde even threw his own white sword over his shoulder and it crashed to the ground as well. Vanitas gave Roxas a questioning look but it was soon replaced with a hateful look.

The blackett gripped his single sword with both his hands and rushed at Roxas. The blonde readied himself.

Vanitas's sword smashed down at an overhead strike at Roxas's head. The blonde rose his own sword up and blocked it. Gold eyes bore into blue.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you and your brother." Vanitas laughed maliciously. Roxas's eyes narrowed and he backed up and swung at the blackett's head in blind fury.

Vanitas laughed more and quickly brought his leg up and kicked Roxas in the face. The blonde fell to the ground, the back of his head hit the marble floor, hard. Blood from previous wounds spilled out. Damn it, the blonde was careless and allowed himself to be blinded by anger. It made him be vulnerable.

The blonde quickly shot to his feet and swung at Vanitas's head with a clearer mind. But the blackett ducked and slashed Roxas's left leg. The blonde let out a yelp and moved back once again. Vanitas laughed harder at Roxas's "cowardness". "What, giving up already?" Vanitas mocked. The blonde glared, "Get real! Look which one of us is winning!"

Something is holding him back. Armor. The armor. Without even a second thought, the blonde began peeling off the armor. Revealing a newly clean white t-shirt and short tan cargo pants. Roxas even pulled out his amulet from his shirt where everyone could see it glowing in all of its glory.

Roxas gripped the sword harder. "YOU WON'T EVEN TOUCH SORA!" Roxas roared. Vanitas's eyes narrowed and he dived for Roxas. The blackett's sword aimed to stab the blonde through the torso but Roxas quickly ducked out of the way and brought his sword down and struck Vanitas's right shoulder. The blackett groaned and gripped his shoulder and glared hatefully into Roxas's eyes.

The blonde returned it with a cocky smile. Vanitas seethed and swung at Roxas again, but in blind hatred.

The blackett's sword swung for Roxas's leg but the blonde jumped out of the way and punched the blackett in the face. Vanitas stumbled and gripped his throbbing nose. Vanitas surged at Roxas and the blonde had no time to block it.

The blonde fell to his knees and gripped at his chest, and then he noticed it. A sword was stuck inside his chest. Roxas looked at it wide eyed, then up and noticed Vanitas was smiling cockily, and holding the handle to the sword that was plunged in his chest.

Vanitas had just stabbed Roxas through the heart.

The blonde's eyes squeezed shut as Vanitas ripped his sword back out of Roxas's chest. He crashed to the floor and tried to breath but blood filled his lungs. His expression one of absolute pain. Tears stung his eyes as he wheezed. Roxas coughed repeatedly and blood spewed everywhere. And that was all that could be heard in the room. Everyone stared at the pair, wide eyed. They especially stared at the little blonde laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Axel was most shocked; he thought Roxas had fight in him. The redhead couldn't believe that the blonde was dying. Luxord and Arthur couldn't believe that Roxas was dying either. It seemed unreal.

Vanitas squatted down in front of Roxas, "I think I am going to have fun killing that stupid brother of yours," the blackett smirked. And with that Vanitas stood and strolled away.

Roxas couldnt give up, he just couldn't. The blonde grit his teeth and pushed up with his hands, then his knees. Until after a lot of struggling, he stood. Roxas stood there with his sword clenched in his right hand and his left hand clenched into a fist. His eyes filled with determination. If anyone saw Roxas, they would be terrified. Wouldn't you be terrified if someone just got stabbed through the heart and was able to still stand tall and was covered in blood from head to toe?

Roxas outstretched his arm and pointed it at Vanitas's retreating form, "Vanitas!" The blonde barked. The blackett turned around and was completely shocked to see Roxas standing, still alive.

"I'm not done yet," the blonde growled. Vanitas still stood wide eyed at the blonde which made Roxas furious. The blonde lifted his sword and slashed down in an overhead strike at Vanitas. The blackett regained his senses and jumped out of the way. Roxas slashed again to the side and hit Vanitas in the arm. The blackett yelped but blocked the next onslaught. Their swords connected and locked. The blonde turned Vanitas's sword with his and then brought the hilt of his sword up and smashed it against the blackett's skull. Vanitas's sword dropped to the floor with a few clangs, and then Vanitas himself crumpled to the ground. Roxas had won.

Roxas smiled triumphantly and his sword fell too. Then the he fell to the floor as well.

And with that, the blonde's eyes fluttered close and he let the darkness take him. His amulet still glowing brightly.

And the question of is he alive or dead flooded everyone's thoughts.

**A/N: TOOK ME FOREVER! Anywayssss that was a major cliffhanger! Is Roxas dead? Or naaaaw? Oo and I even did an AkuRoku yaoi moment :D**

**In response to:**

**Ern Estine 13624: If you thought that was interesting then get a load of this chapter! :D**

**Yoyito: Hahaha another cliffhanger mwahahaha! :D Thankssss.**

**Review! New Reviews rock! Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Heeeeey~ it might interest you to know that something very interesting happened in my music history class today. My teacher was telling us about how some instruments today are similar to ones during the renaissance period...and well, it was like this~**

**Teacher: The hole on the flute that you blow over is right here. I like to call it, the 'sweet spot'.**

**Me: O.O x) *tries to hold back laughter* (We all know in yaoi fanfiction that the phrase 'sweet spot' means 'prostate') *looks around the room to see if anyone else got it. See's my friend biting back laughter***

**Friend (who also reads yaoi fanfics): xD AHAHAHAHA**

**Me: AHAHAHAHA**

**Teacher: What's so funny?**

**Me and my Friend: XD**

**Hope you enjoyed that because I sure did.**

**Warning: Yaoi, sexual scenes, bloody fighting scenes, shouta. And other shit.**

**Disclaimer: I wish I own Kingdom Hearts. But I dont.**

**Enjoy!**

**xxxXXXXXXXXxxx**

Roxas had been in the emergency care room for almost a week. Axel immediately sent the guest back to their Kingdoms after too many questions arose. For the Flamma King could not answer those questions, because he did not know the answers himself, though he wished deeply he did. Rumors swarmed in the castle between servants and soldiers alike. How could Roxas be alive after getting stabbed through the heart? No one knew.

The blonde boy was indeed alive, just in a coma like state- resting in the hospital wing. He had yet to wake, and improvement in his health was very little.

Many of the rumors consisted of the well-known story of the 'legend', them thinking Roxas was the boy stated in the story. But unlike the servants in the Flamma Kingdom, the royal guests that were there that night thought nothing of it. The King's, Queen's, Princess's, and Prince's that witnessed the fight, thought Roxas was just lucky. There was no way in hell that a simple beggar could be the one spoken in the legend. They thought it as a petty mistake, that Roxas had simply just got stabbed in the lung or something. They could make whatever excuse they wanted but they knew what they had seen that day. After all, the boy would have to be of noble birth to be the one spoken in the legend, right? A poor kid could not be that special.

Most of them were in pure denial, but curiosity remained.

But alas, for once the castle of Flamma was quiet. As night came to its climax it was silent and almost all the castle's occupants were asleep (except for the guards of course).

That was why Luxord and Arthur chose that night to take action.

xxXXXXXXx

Arthur sprinted down the empty corridors, hoping to God he wasn't late. The blonde man traveled to an abandoned room.

He ran a hand through his sweaty blonde hair as he pushed the door to the abandoned room open. Arthur was met with a small room, which was just big enough to fit a tiny table in the center and chairs for people to sit in. Only about six people could fit in the room at best. There were four seats around the table though, Sora sat to Riku's right, and seated across from Sora was, Luxord. A seat sat empty next to Luxord's left; it was the chair Arthur should have been occupying.

The blonde man quickly strolled in, ducking a bit because of the very low ceilings, and sat down next to Luxord. The General with a goatee glared at the other man, "How nice of you to finally join us Arthur."

"Shove it," Arthur grumbled, earning a slight chuckle from Luxord.

"With all due respect, on a more important note why did you summon us here, sir?" Riku spoke up, lightly squeezing the shoulder of the brunette that sat next to him. Sora looked terrible. His nose was runny, his eyes pink and puffy from crying, his skin was a sickly pale instead its usual tan glow, and he just after all looked entirely defeated. All week after the fight, Sora didn't look up from the ground once, not even to look to his sleeping brother's face. Whenever Sora was visiting Roxas, he would just simply squeeze his brother's hand and cry while looking to the ground.

Sora felt completely alone. If Roxas was gone, he would have no one.

"Well I asked you to come here because for one, this is the only room that can't be spied on, and secondly we need to get you and Sora out of here. So I wanted to discuss those plans with you," Luxord explained. For the first time in a week, Sora looked up, "Why do me and Riku have to get out of here?" the brunette asked softly.

"Because, Roxas is alive. And when he awakes, everyone will think...well it doesn't matter what they think he is. But the important thing is getting you to a safe Kingdom. The thing is you will be ransom for Roxas. His life is in danger and so is yours. Just you telling someone he is your brother puts both of your lives in danger. So we need to get you to a different Kingdom where no one will know you two are brothers. And we would send Riku with you, to protect you. Understand?" Luxord explained, looking to Sora.

"Why would Roxas and mine lives be in danger?" the brunette asked harshly, eyes narrowing. Luxord calmly held up one hand as a sign for Sora to calm down. "It's not important, but if you truly care for your brother-" Arthur began but was cut off. The brunette flung out of his seat and slammed his hands down on the table, his eyes full of hatred and anger.

"Of course I care for my brother! But what does that have to do with anything?!" Sora screamed, bits of spit flew from his mouth at Arthur as he yelled. The General glared back and wiped the spit from his face. The silverette gripped the brunette's shoulder and yanked Sora back down into his seat. "If you care for your brother like you claim, then you will go along with this plan. Just trust us; have I ever given you a reason to not trust me?" Riku snapped. Sora's gaze impossibly hardened even more, "You've never given me a reason not to trust you. But you've never given me a reason to trust you either."

The two blondes and silverette groaned. "Sora, please? All I think about is what is best for you, please," Riku pleaded, looking into the brunette's big blue eyes. Sora stared back into the silverett's turquoise eyes, and his gaze softened.

"Fine."

xxXXXXXXXxx

And as the sun rose for the first time that cold morning, just like Axel had ordered- Sora and Riku were accompanied by a crew and made way across the southern ocean to the Kingdom of Ludunt. Sora would be safe there.

The brunette stood by the railing, with his arms draped around the cherry wood railing of the great ship. One of his arms was propped up with his hand cupping his chin. He sighed as his blue eyes looked out to the seemingly never ending crystal blue sea.

"Sora?" a familiar voice asked from behind him. Of course it was Riku. The brunette rolled his blue orbs even though Riku couldn't see it, "What do you want?" Sora grumbled.

"What do you want?" Riku asked back, he wanted to find out how the boy was feeling. But what Riku said, had struck a nerve. Bristling, Sora whipped around and gripped tightly on the silverette's shirt collar. "What do I want?" Sora began but got more tempered by the second, "What do I want?! I want to know my brother is okay! I want to be by Roxas's side! I want my parents alive! I want CLOUD alive! I want my home back! Not some fucking Flamma pricks prowling around and stupid Kingdoms fighting over nothing! This war is ruining my life and what I had left, over what? Did some little spoiled Prince accidently put a wad of gum in another Princess's hair and then they declared war?!" Sora screamed, by the end of it he was laughing maniacally. The brunette seemed truly crazy. Riku blinked and stared at Sora wide-eyed after the sudden outburst.

"It gets better," Riku said softly. The brunette gritted his teeth but let go of his friends shirt collar. "You know _nothing_," Sora glared.

"How the do you know that? You're not the only one affected by this stupid fucking war." Riku snapped, eyes narrowing.

Sora blinked. Riku was right. "Sorry…"

The silverette calmed down slightly and squeezed Sora's shoulder reassuringly. "Let's go find some grub, they gotta have something good to eat on this ship," Riku suggested.

Giving the silverette a small grin, Sora nodded.

xXXXXXXXxxxx

Former King Roman, Prince Reno, and King Axel, sat in silence next to the hospital bed that held the little sleeping blonde known as Roxas. Reno sat back in his chair looking bored, and staring at nothing. Axel followed his older brother's pose. Axel tried to seem nonchalant but he was truly worried about the blonde. Plus, he didn't want to lose his new toy. But, Axel did feel something building for the blonde. Roman sat; looking at Roxas's sleeping face intently.

All three of the redheads wondered the same thing. How was Roxas alive?

Roman hummed thoughtfully, "Maybe this boy is the Hyacintho Divus," the former King thought aloud. As soon as the words left their father's lips, the two brothers snapped their heads up to look to their father. "Dad, you can't be serious? It's just a kid. Right?" Reno asked.

Roman shrugged, "I don't know. But everything adds up. From what Axel has told me, Roxas possesses a blue amulet that glows. I saw it glow when we saw the fight happen last week. Roxas's birthday is on the same day of Lucemspero's downfall, and Roxas is from Lucemspero. People from the Lucemspero Kingdom are known as sacred people, 'the people that walk in the light'. Not many people from Lucemspero survived its downfall, in fact it is very rare to find anyone from Lucemspero now days," he explained, stroking his chin that was covered in slight grey/red stubble.

Reno sighed, "What a drag. For fuck's sake, the kid got run through with a sword through the fucking heart, right? Then he should be dead. This kid can't be the Hyacintho Divus, it's just not right. Ugh, this hurts my brain," the eldest brother groaned, looking exasperatedly to his father. Axel rolled his eyes, "Everything hurts your brain Reno," he commented. Reno punched his little brother in the arm. "Stop hitting your brother and stop cursing," King Roman barked, sighing. "Like I said I do not know if Roxas is what we think he is. But it is a possibility. So, Axel I entrust you to find out if he is the Hyacintho Divus or not. It will be much of an advantage to have him as one of our soldiers, whether he is the Hyacintho Divus or not. We can still make people think he is," Roman decided, never taking his eyes off of Roxas.

The King's head whipped to the side to stare at his father, "Father, you can't seriously be thinking of using Roxas, can you? It's not the noble thing to do," Axel replied, irked. Roman shook his head, "Of course not. But if he is the Hyacintho Divus, we will do everything in our power to make sure we stay on his good side at least."

Axel nodded.

xxxxXXXXXXXXxxx

Finally, the letter had come. It took him a whole two years to completely gain the Flamma King's trust. But now it was completely worth it. He was expecting the letter to arrive soon, after all that fight between Vanitas and that boy happened last week.

The man picked up the envelope in his hands and tore the envelope open. He pulled the carefully written letter out of its confinement. His eyes scanned the letter as he read.

_You know your objective. Put it in action as soon as possible, then report back to the Kingdom of Gelus. We wait impatiently for your return. Make sure to also find out if that boy is who we think he is. When you get the job done, make sure no one knows it was you._

_Sincerely, Ansem._

_P.S. Burn this letter after reading._

The man smirked as he read the letter. Finally, he could do what he wanted to do for so very long. That idiot Flamma King would go up in flames as they say. Laughing, he strode over to the fireplace and threw the letter into the flames. He watched the letter burn into ashes as he laughed maliciously.

xxxxxxXXXXXXXxx

"Cloud sloooow down!" Zack pleaded as he trudged along after the blonde. "Zack we are almost to the boat. Now shut up or so help me I will castrate you!" Cloud growled.

"You would seriously risk putting your hands on my dick? Dude, you don't wanna know where it's been," the blackette smiled cheekily. Stopping in his tracks, Cloud whipped around to look at Zack. The blackette was of course wearing that shit eating grin of his.

"Gross," Cloud grinned slightly, scrunching up his nose. Zack's smile grew to ear to ear, "See! You can still smile! I thought you almost forgot for a second there," he laughed. Cloud smirked, his gaze soft, "Zack, how can you be happy after all that has happened the last week?" the blonde asked.

The blackette shrugged, "I have absotively posolutely no idea how I am still cheery, but I am," Zack replied simply.

"Absotively posolutely? Seriously?"

"Yep."

Cloud chuckled and they began walking again, this time standing beside one another.

"Hey Cloud?"

"Hm?"

"How do you know that Roxas and Sora are still even alive?" Zack inquired. The blonde's blue orbs dropped to the ground, "I don't know. But I have a hunch. I also have a hunch that my littlest troublemaker of a brother, Roxas- Has got himself into some deep shit," Cloud laughed.

Zack laughed too, that sure sounded like Roxas. The blackette looked up to the sky, he wondered how the twins were faring.

**xxxXXXXxxx**

**A/N: Short chapter. But oh well. And oooo who's the mystery man who got the letter?**

**Thanks! Review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Honestly I think I should have waited to do this story until I had better writing skills instead of as my first fanfic, I've been waiting to share this story for a long time. Oh well, hopefully this story doesn't disappoint. Maybe one day it will wrack up a lot of reviews, that'd be cool :) One day I hope this story is big and great like so many of the others I have read.**

**By the way, this took so long to update because my mom barred me off of the computer for three days, so sorry!**

**Warning: YAOI, don't like don't read. Blood scenes, dark themes, and kickass awesomeness (in my personal opinion).**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts then Axel would of had sex with Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2 during the struggle tournament. So yeah I don't own….sadly.**

**Enjoy!**

**XXXXxxxxxXXXX**

**A/N: Honestly I think I should have waited to do this story until I had better writing skills instead of as my first fanfic, I've been waiting to share this story for a long time. Oh well, hopefully this story doesn't disappoint. Maybe one day it will wrack up a lot of reviews, that'd be cool :) One day I hope this story is big and great like so many of the others I have read.**

**By the way, this took so long to update because my mom barred me off of the computer for three days, so sorry!**

**Warning: YAOI, don't like don't read. Blood scenes, dark themes, and kickass awesomeness (in my personal opinion).**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts then Axel would of had sex with Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2 during the struggle tournament. So yeah I don't own….sadly.**

**Enjoy!**

**XXXXxxxxxXXXX**

_The waves lapped at shore with ease. The orange sky stretched to the horizon and turned blood red, the bright sun looking like an orange disk._

_A little blonde boy lay down on the sand, the waves seeping under him; sending cold but pleasant shivers and the wet feeling of water on his back side._

_The boy's chest rose and deflated as he breathed and sung quietly to himself._

"_Can I stay here? Can I stay here? Can I sleep peacefully in your heart? Your heart, it's full of light. The perfect place for sleeping, away at night and all eternity._

_I can protect you from the dark, and you can keep me safe in your heart. You will never die, you will live on and never have to say goodbye. Last shred of hope is shrinking. I am dying. My light is fading; can I sleep peacefully in your heart? I need to play my part._

_Can I stay here? Can I stay here? Can I sleep peacefully in your heart? Your heart, it's full of life. The perfect place for sleeping while I strife._

_Now you can protect the ones close to you, I will make sure of it. Last shred of hope…_

_World is dying, striving, crying._

_There is a spirit who can make the bad times fade. Help me before I fade away. Can I sleep peacefully in your heart? My sapphire glow burns in your eyes. You will never have to say goodbye._

_I can sleep peacefully, now…" He sang tranquilly._

"_Roxas!" A voice yelled. His older brother's head appeared right above his own._

"_Huh?" The blonde boy blinked his sapphire blue orbs and sat up. He turned around to face his twin, then laid back down farther into the water; letting the waves lap against himself more than the last time. Roxas soothingly moved his arms back and forth, looking like he was trying to make a sand angel. Sora bent down, placing his hands on his knees and laughed at his little brother. The brunette's eyes squeezed shut as he smiled, showing pearly whites._

"_Roxas what were you singing?" Sora asked, as he sat down in front of his brother crossing his legs crisscross apple sauce. The brunette proceeded to trace random funny faces in the sand, while laughing quietly at his creations._

"_I don't know what I was singing. I was just kind of, singing? You know, like when you kept singing about how you can finally tie your shoes last week," Roxas sniggered. Sora pouted, "Hey! Five years old is a reasonable age to learn!"_

_The blonde laughed, "Well I learned last year so neeeee," Roxas taunted and stuck out his tongue at the end. The brunette stuck his tongue out too, then his face split into a wry smile and he lunged for his twin._

_Roxas yelped as Sora straddled his waist. "Sora! Get off!"_

"_No way! You're being mean so it's the tickle monster!" The brunette laughed evilly and his fingers began to dance all over Roxas's sides. The blonde uncontrollably laughed and tried to roll his brother off of him and struggled to grasp Sora's hands._

"_Sora! Roxas! Time to go home!" Their mother's voice called from up farther on the beach. Sora rolled off of his brother, "Okay mom!" the brunette waved to his mother as him and his twin let out a few more giggles._

_Roxas sat up and stood and so did Sora. Roxas dusted his pants off self-consciously like always. When he was done dusting his pants off he looked to the side at his brother. Sora looked to the blonde too._

"_Race ya!" Roxas yelled and took off like a lightning bolt towards his mother, leaving Sora in his dust._

"_No fair!" The brunette pouted as he chased after his younger twin._

_Of course Roxas made it to his mother first, panting heavily. And Sora arrived a second after. The blonde latched himself onto his mother's right arm while his older brother latched himself to her left._

_The blonde turned around to look at the setting sun. "Last shred of hope…" Roxas mumbled, and then turned back around, facing front._

_xxxxxxxxxxxXXXxxxxx_

"Ungh...ngh..." something came into view a little bit at a time. The picture was blurry and black around the edges.

Blinking his _sapphire _blue orbs again, the picture became clearer. Then he blinked a couple more times and finally he could see clearly.

All Roxas saw was white, loads and loads of white.

"Where…?"

The blonde figured out he was looking at a ceiling. So groaning, he pushed up with his hands and sat up. He groggily looked around and noticed he was in a hospital. A few other patients were in their beds with nurses tending to them. Roxas also saw that he had a cart of multiple medicines and needles next to him.

Needles. He hated needles. Frowning, he looked down to himself. Roxas was wearing one of those blue hospital gowns that show your butt when you stand.

He picked at the fabric with distaste; he also found that he had tubes sticking out of his chest and wrist. He was quite upset to see that. Roxas had a weird thing where if someone even touched his wrist it would bother him, if he even touched his own wrist it freaked him out. Why people even cut their wrist was beyond him.

The blonde started to pat his chest where the tube was over his heart, he fidgeted slightly; he didn't like it being there one bit. Besides, why did he need all the tubes, needles, medicines, and machines if he felt fine?

"Oh, Roxas. You're awake, how are you feeling?" Aerith appeared before him, she placed a warm comforting hand on his left shoulder. He looked up with wide eyes, "Why am I here?"

Aerith cocked her head to the side slightly and placed a hand under her chin, "Well because of- well you know. How you got injured two weeks ago in the fight between you and Vanitas," she elaborated. Roxas's mouth lay slightly agape.

Kingdom of Potentia was burned down; Cloud was dead, Flamma Kingdom, an idiot King, the bargain, the fight, Sora…

It all came rushing back to him, and his hands shot up and tore at his hair. "Where is Sora?" the blonde snapped at her, glaring. Aerith lightly covered her mouth in shock at the sudden outburst and harsh tone, "I think you should rest for a bit Roxas. Then when you are well you can ask General Luxord or General Arthur."

The blonde's eyes narrowed and without even second thinking it, he gripped the tubes and pulled them out of himself. Much to his dismay. Because if he didn't like anyone simply touching his wrist then he definitely didn't like ripping something out of his wrist. He grimaced and twitched slightly. The medical machines next to him started to beep violently. He got nervous when the machines alerted all the nurses. Because all of the nurses stopped what they were doing and rushed over to him.

A few of them grabbed his arms, while others grabbed his legs and torso.

"Let me go!" Roxas yelled, squeezing his eyes shut, bearing his teeth, and flailing violently.

The struggle became more and more intense as some nurses who weren't grabbing him started to get out straps to strap him to the bed. What was he, a mental patient?

Roxas completely panicked and accidently kicked a nurse in the face. He wanted to ask if she was okay but some of the nurses let go of him to help the injured lady. Whipping his head around and staring at the commotion, he took that as his chance and he sprung from the bed, surprising the nurses. They all turned to him and tried to grasp him but he bolted to the door.

His bare feet clicked across the cold floor as he sprinted. Roxas heard screaming from behind that was directed towards him. The blonde didn't even care that most likely all of them could see his rear.

Shaking his head and ignoring the screams, his hands shot out and slammed the oak doors open that stood tall in front of him. The doors flourished open and he came to a halt right outside the doors. Roxas looked back into the hospital wing and found that the employees were still charging for him. The blonde gulped and he began to run again.

He panted as he ran down random hallways that were clad in crimson carpet. His blood pumped through his veins and his legs felt like jelly. After all he hadn't moved a muscle for two weeks. And even more of a reason, he got stabbed through his most vital organ. His heart. But the blonde would give more thought to that subject later.

As Roxas ran his thoughts drifted off. The blonde knew his twin wouldn't have left his side willingly, so why wasn't Sora there with him? Did he lose the fight? Did they kill Sora and they were waiting until he awoke to kill him too? He had to find out about Sora. Then they had to leave.

Tears stung his eyes as his legs kept running. The eighth floor to his bedroom was on his mind as he ran. And it seemed that he just couldn't get there quick enough.

XXXXxxXXXXX

_Knock Knock Knock_

Axel's hand flourished across the piece of parchment as he filled out forms in his study. The redhead propped up his head with his other hand; he sighed and ran a hand through his red mane of hair. The King was exhausted. It had to be at least three am.

He grumbled bitterly, why couldn't Reno be given the task of looking into what Roxas was? For God's sake, Axel was already busy with tending to King duties, so why did he have to do extra work? Reno just sat around all day, why couldn't he do it?

_Knock knock knock_

The King's head snapped up and glared and the door, "Come in," he barked.

Soon after the door opened and Aerith walked in.

"Permission to give update, sir?" she asked.

"Permission granted," he grumbled. The hospital update was the same thing every day. It was always 'Roxas is still resting; there is no telling when he might wake up'. So in other words, Axel wasn't exactly thrilled for the update. It was always disappointing.

"He's awake," Aerith spoke, nervously tightening her pink bow that lay atop her head.

Axel stopped writing mid-sentence; he looked up slowly at her. "He's awake?" the redhead asked, unbelievingly. She nodded, "Yes he is awake. But-"

"But?" the King asked, cutting her off. Aerith sighed, "But, he is wandering around the castle somewhere. He sort of ran away…" she explained. Axel's eyes narrowed, "How?" he growled. "He woke up and got upset. We tried to strap him down but he accidently injured a nurse and then he made a run for it."

Axel inhaled and exhaled deeply, his eyebrows knitted together. "Dismissed."

Aerith nodded and left swiftly. Roxas was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth.

The redhead stood and grabbed his favorite long black coat. It looked like he would have to find the blonde himself.

XXXxxxXXXXx

Roxas somehow found his room and was running around the room hurriedly. He had to find some clothes.

When Roxas had arrived in his room it was completely empty and looked as if no one had been in there for weeks.

Sora. Maybe they really had killed Sora. And possibly he was next.

Roxas tore the hospital gown off of himself, leaving himself just in his underwear. He came to notice that he had a big scar that had many stitches in it over his heart; the blonde looked at it with a frown. But he didn't have time to worry about it.

Flinging some jurors open, the blonde successfully found a pair of thin white socks. He ran over to the bed, sat, and hurriedly pulled the socks over his feet. Once they were on he picked up the baggy black trousers with many pockets off of his bed that he had laid there beforehand. Slipping the pants on, he jumped up and down a couple times to get them up. They were a little big on him but somehow this time he swimmingly found a brown woven belt. The belt looked to be made out of twine or something, but it would work. The blonde got the belt on and buckled it triumphantly. Next, he grabbed a white t-shirt and carefully slipped it on over his head. The blonde even found his black cloak and black boots that were nicely cleaned by someone. And luckily his father's dagger was still respectfully in his right boot. The only thing he forgot about was his amulet.

Pulling his cloak over himself, he pulled the hood up over his eyes and had it shadowing most of his face. Then Roxas easily slipped into his boots and strapped them back up.

The blonde was victoriously dressed and ready.

Roxas was even fortunate to check some other rooms near his and found a brown leather and tan clothed book bag with many pockets and zippers.

The blonde turned back to the bed and found his sword that was given to him by Malcolm. Malcolm...Hayner. The blonde would have to say goodbye to Hayner before he left.

Shaking his head, he strapped his sword over his right shoulder, the strap going across his torso and the sword lay in its sheath against his left hip. Roxas then put on his book bag that he found in a nearby guest room.

The book bag had essentials in it. Like: food, canteens filled with water, a small blanket, and of course some gold that he had found also in a nearby guest room. There was no reason to go empty handed. It was surprising to see what you could find in spare bedrooms in a castle.

But it was too risky to go through the hallways really. So scaling the building would have to do. The blonde ran over to the window and flung it open. It was pitch black outside, so at least his dark attire would make him blend.

Roxas placed his hands on the metal windowsill as the crisp air of night blew through his hair. Flamma air…

Sighing, the blonde stepped up into the windowsill. He slowly turned around and swung his legs over the other side. He gripped the sill while his legs found a random ledge to prop up on. Looking back into the bedroom, he was shocked, surprised, and scared to see what he saw on the other side. Yep all of those's' words.

xXXXXxxxx

Axel stormed to the twins room and threw the door open. The Flamma King was shocked to see Roxas's head on the other side of the window, the discarded hospital gown on the floor, and the disheveled room.

The blonde's eyes widened as Axel strode over to the window. Quickly, he began to slide away from the window. His hands wedged in random cracks, nooks, and crannies while he slipped over to the side. The blonde looked around and noticed that far away on the corner of the building was piping. Bingo.

Piping was like a ladder in some cases. So he could just climb straight down instead of looking for random ledges that would take more time.

Hurriedly, the blonde headed towards the pipes. Axel stuck his head out the window and looked around until he saw the blonde surprisingly far away.

The redhead growled as he ran out of the room and to the first floor to gather a search party. No way in hell was he letting a thief run around free in his castle. Especially since his father had ordered him to watch Roxas. Even more important that Axel was not letting the blonde slip through his fingers so easily. The redhead would have to simply tighten the reins to gain more control. After all, Roxas would be his. Whether the blonde liked it or not.

xxxxxXXXXXXxxx

There was another ship. Sora could see it. The brunette removed himself from the railing and looked around and found that there were people on the main deck. Sora walked down from a top the captain's cabin and down to the main deck where people were squabbling around frantically.

"Riku!" the brunette called. He thought it would be wise to tell someone that there was another ship on the sea that was gaining on them.

The brunette couldn't explain it, but he felt a new trust and bond between him and Riku. It felt like they were meant to be friends. They were now there for one another.

"Sora?" someone tapped his shoulder. Sora turned around and saw it was Riku who had tapped him. "Riku, there's a ship gaining on us," the brunette announced, pointing towards the other ship on the ice cold sea.

Riku nodded, "I know. It's the Kingdom of Gelus's ship." he muttered gravely. Sora became frantic, "Uh, is the Kingdom of Gelus allies with the Flamma?" the brunette asked worriedly.

"Hardly," Riku replied looking to the other ship. "Sora, let's get you somewhere safe."

xxxXXXXXXXX

Roxas's hands gripped the cold metal pipe as he climbed down. The blonde's hands felt numb, he should have looked for gloves. If it wasn't for the attachments on the pipes to the walls then the blonde could have easily slid down like going down a rope, but no, stupid attachments existed. Grumbling as he climbed down the wall. The blonde looked over his shoulder to the ground, three more floors to go. Roxas heard chaos of shouts and orders, like they were looking for someone. Like they were looking for him. He hoped to God with his dark clothing and the late hours of night that cast a gloom that he wouldn't be able to be seen.

Roxas craned his head to look to the right over his shoulder. He judged his distance from the ground to where he was. If he jumped he would have a good chance at surviving. Most likely he would just break a couple bones...most likely.

Taking in a shaky breath, he turned his attention back to the wall in front of him while the barks of orders got louder and faint lights of lanterns could be seen. He could do it, he had to jump. Roxas squeezed his eyes shut tight, clenched his teeth and sprung away from the wall. His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets on the way down. Three floors wasn't that bad, but it still made his stomach drop, clench, and gave him that sick feeling right before you drop down from high up places. In all honesty Roxas hated jumping from heights; he didn't mind jumping from one to another. But jumping straight down was another story. A scarier and more painful story. Over the years he found that whenever he jumped from high up and landed his ankles grew weaker and weaker. So recently whenever he jumped from high up his ankles hurt like a bitch and felt like they were going to break.

Roxas made and 'x' with his limbs and readied himself for the impact as he sped towards the ground. And then the impact came, he winced as he landed on his feet but then tumbled onto his shoulder and rolled. He groaned, "Fuck," he cursed through clenched teeth; he rubbed the back of his head as he winced. But nonetheless he grit his teeth and beared it as he stood. Roxas dusted his pants off like an old habit and sprinted towards the dungeons. His ankles _hurt._

Breathing in evenly as he ran. With his heart, it was hard to run. As he ran his thoughts drifted again.

'_How am I alive? I got stabbed through the heart didn't I? So I lost the fight, right? Where's Sora? How is my heart working? I'm tired of not knowing!'_

His head throbbed with all the questions. Also his legs stung and he heard ringing in his ears. But he didn't stop. Roxas was surprised to not have seen anyone while he ran. The blonde thought the grounds would be covered.

xxXXXXXXXxxx

The heavy metal door to the dreary dungeons flew open. "SORA!" he screamed. The blonde looked in every cell. And every cell was empty.

"Sora!" he cried. His heart clenched, he gained a lump in his throat, and he felt sick. Was his brother dead? Roxas always assumed the worst too fast, even with little to no information on the situation.

One cell left. Roxas ran to the cell and looked in. His eyes widened at seeing it was also empty. The blonde's breathing deepened and became loud and shaky. The tears welled in his eyes and he crumpled to his knees on the dirty cobblestone floor. His forehead laid on the ground in front of his knees, he grasped at his sides, and let out long and outspoken sobs.

The sound of dripping water and rats scurrying away were toned out as he cried. The tears kept streaming down his face. Roxas tried to stop it, but he couldn't. It hurt so badly. Losing Cloud was awful, terrible, an unexplainable pain. But Roxas never really had time to think about it. He only had time to think about it when he was in jail the day before the last day before the fight. Roxas thought it would be ok though. He thought it would be ok because he had Sora.

Now Roxas had absolutely no one. Worst of all, Roxas and Sora were twins. So they always were with each other.

Whichever one wasn't Sora was Roxas. Whichever one wasn't Roxas was Sora. Two halves of a whole. Without the two pieces of the whole, everything was disconnected.

Leaving the other piece alone.

Roxas tried to stop crying but he let his sobs become vocal. He screamed.

The blonde screamed till his voice became hoarse and his lungs gave out. He was breathing so erratically that he thought he was going to pass out.

There was nothing left to fight for. Nonetheless he would keep crying and striving.

But...damn.

xxXXXXXXX

Eventually Roxas stopped crying for a short amount of time, took his father's dagger out of his boot, and picked a cell door's lock. Pathetically, the blonde dragged himself into the cell and locked himself inside.

He sat down low against the wall and his backpack lay next to him. Only his shoulder blades, neck, and head touched the wall while the rest of him lay on the freezing damp floor. Roxas blankly stared ahead of himself, his eyes holding no emotion. He didn't even care that his sword's handle was digging into his side. The blonde's hand lay on his stomach and felt his stomach rise and fall as he breathed.

At least that let him know he was alive. Because he sure didn't feel like it…

He felt….numb.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I don't know how late this will be when I update this. But man oh man. This is my fourth time rewriting the entire chapter! D: but oh well. It was worth it! I hope.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except the ones I make up. Like Arthur I made up, I own Arthur. Mwahahaha. But I don't own Axel If I did he would be my bitch. Oh who am I kidding I'm his bitch. He runs my life and he's not even real **

**Enjoy! ~**

**(That same night)**

It was pitch black and there were trees, vines, poison ivy, plants, snakes, animals, and bugs. Basically hell. To top it off it was cold and they were dressed in torn, worn, and smelly clothes. Zack had on a once white t-shirt but was currently covered in ash, blood, sweat, mud, and some things he didn't even want to know what they were. His makeshift black pants weren't much better. Same went for Cloud's long sleeved black shirt and his black trousers. But eventually Zack and Cloud could hear water. Water, as in waves lapping at a shore.

And after two weeks they finally found a little cliff that was about four feet above water. There was no sand, it wasn't a beach. Just a small cliff with a bridge built on stilts that lay in the river, the river that led to the sea. The bridge was connected to the cliff and outstretched to a boat.

A boat. The boat they had been searching for.

"Oh, wow. There actually is a boat," Zack commented bewildered, looking at the boat that looked to be a fourth of the size of a pirate ship, painted on the side of the boat in red curvy letters read 'The Mary Ann', and the boat itself was made out of some kind of rotting dark wood. Cloud's head snapped to the side to look to his friend, "What do you mean 'there actually is a boat'? What, did you think I was lying?" the blonde barked.

The blackette shrugged, "Well sor-ree. But after weeks of not seeing this so called 'boat', you start to wonder," Zack retorted, placing his hands on his hips. Cloud sighed, "Fair enough. But come on," he said as he walked down the little bridge that lead to the big fishing boat. The blackette nodded and ran to catch up to the blonde. "Ok, so uh, how'd you know it was here?" he asked.

"I found it awhile back, and no one ever used it. So when Sora, Roxas, and I lived closer to here instead of in the city, I used to use it to fish. I think I left some supplies and spare clothing on it," Cloud replied, stepping onto the boat.

Zack just nodded in response. The blonde turned around to the blackette and smiled, "So how does fish sound for dinner?" he asked. Zack smile went from ear to ear,

"Wondavar. It's better than berries."

Cloud nodded and held his hand out for Zack to take. The blackette eyed the outstretched hand but then took it and the blonde helped him onto the boat.

The boat was big enough to have a captains quarters in the back, a steering wheel sat mounted at the nose of the main deck, a hole led to the bottom of the boat where surprisingly a lot of room was there that could fit some hanging hammocks and supplies, and giant sails littered the main deck. It was like a poor fisherman's dream, but a rich fisherman's reality.

Before Zack could even ask 'what now?' Cloud got to work. The blonde walked over to a square hole in the deck with an iron door over it. He squatted down next to the hole and heaved the rusty iron door off of the opening and lightly laid it down next to the hole. The blonde looked into the dark hole suspiciously, "Anyone down there?" Cloud called into the hole. After a few moments and no answer came, Cloud jumped into the hole.

The sound of the blonde's body landing echoed and no sound came after that. Zack awkwardly rocked back and forth on his heels, waiting for any sound at all that wasn't from crickets, owls, or water.

Moments passed and then the blackette thought it best to check the blonde was, you know, alive. "Cloud!" he called into the hole and after a single heart beat a sound of a match being lit echoed. A second later a lantern was lit and the hole filled with light.

Cloud reappeared and looked up to Zack with a deadpanned look, "Wimp," the blonde muttered as he climbed out of the hole, handing the blackette the lantern. "I am not a wimp!" Zack exclaimed exasperatedly as he took the lantern.

The blonde climbed all the way out of the hole and then leaned back into the hole and grabbed the items he found while muttering that Zack should keep his voice down. Zack shut up after that and set the lantern down and held the items that were handed to him by Cloud.

At the end of it both men had their arms filled with tools. Tools like: fishing rods, maps, daggers, charts, blankets, some hammocks, matches, spare clothing, oil for the lanterns, and lanterns. Cloud made his way over to the captain's quarters with items in hand and Zack followed. The blonde turned around and gave the items he was holding to the blackette. Zack struggled to hold them all, while Cloud opened the door. He pushed the door and it opened with a loud creak.

They walked in the room and Zack took a load off by dumping all of the materials onto a desk that was smack dab in the middle of the room.

The captain's quarters was dark, littered with cobwebs, had an old decaying dusty desk in the middle of the room, a moldy ripped bed, and a wooden table with chairs for dining in the far left corner.

Cloud walked in after Zack and sat the lantern down on the desk next to the materials. The blonde set up the other lanterns around the room by putting lamp oil in them and then lighting them with a match. Once the room was well lit, Zack walked over to the aged bed and carefully sat down on it. Dust puffed up from the mattress and he coughed and waved his hand in front of his face. Cloud ignored him and immediately began dusting things off. He even found a broom and got rid of all the dust from the floors and furniture, and got rid of the cobwebs. Cloud was especially happy to not find any rats. Zack beat the dust out of the mattress while the blonde spread out the maps on the table in the center of room and then put the daggers, fishing rods, blankets, and the hammocks on the table for dining.

Once they were done with their separate task, Zack laid down on the gross bed (he lived on the streets mind you. So sleeping on a moldy mattress was nothing). While Cloud pulled up a chair to the table with the maps on it. The blonde looked at the maps intently. He put his elbow on the desk and held his head in his hand. His brows knitted together as he looked at the map of the countries.

"Zack, get over here," the blonde muttered, waving his hand as a beckoning signal to the blackette. Zack obeyed and pulled up a seat next to Cloud.

"What?" Zack asked tiredly, his blue eyes scanning the map.

"Well, we're right about here," Cloud explained, circling his finger around a patch of land on the map. Where he was pointing was the north east coast of Potentia. "Now if we traveled west, we would end up in the Flamma Kingdom. That would be about a four days walk. But considering Flamma aren't the friendliest of sorts, I think our best option is the Kingdom of Tellus," Cloud explained, pointing to the country (that was the country of Tellus) right across the sea from where they were then.

Zack hummed in response and rubbed the back of his head, "Well the Kingdom of Tellus is our only other closest neighbor. But we'd have to sail there. And I'm not all that good at sailing," he noted. Cloud waved it off, "I'll help you."

The blackette nodded, "Ok, how about this. Right now we get some sleep, then tomorrow we get breakfast then set sail to Tellus?" the blackette inquired. Cloud nodded. "Ok and another question, why Tellus of all places?" Zack asked. The blonde scoffed, "I thought we established this. I'm going to check the whole bloody world for my brothers, and we are starting with Tellus because it is the closest there is to us. Except for the Flamma Kingdom. But I'm putting those damn Flamma on the last of my list," he elaborated. Zack nodded his head slightly and then they both stood.

"I hope we can get to Roxas soon if the Malo soldiers really did destroy the Kingdom of Potentia looking for him," Zack spoke his thoughts out loud. Cloud nodded sadly, "I know. I even thought we were staying too long in that country. We should have moved to a different location and maybe things could have been different."

The blackette smiled sadly.

They set up the hammocks in silence and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXxXXXXXXxxxxxXXX

**(The next morning)**

Axel was fortunate that his rage scared off everyone. He had spent all night looking for the stupid blonde. He didn't want to lose Roxas. The blonde was the only one the King had liked in a long while.

So everyone in the castle was smart enough to let him sleep. Almost everyone.

_Knock_

_Knock _"My King," _Knock knock._

Axel's eyes shot open and he sprung out of bed, stalked over to his door and flung it open. "What?!" he barked. The person who had knocked was Xigbar, and the man was slightly taken aback.

The black haired man coughed into his fist and cleared his throat, "Uh- permission to give update, sir?" Xigbar requested. The redhead sighed and ran a stressful hand through his hair. "Permission granted," the King grumbled.

"Well I am proud to say we caught the kid. We found him in the cells this morning. He now is with the two Generals in the meeting room. They wait for your arrival patiently," Xigbar said with a proud air to him. Axel's mood lifted slightly.

"Tell General Luxord and General Arthur that I will be down there soon," Axel ordered.

Xigbar nodded and swiftly left.

The redhead hurriedly changed into his usual black red attire with his usual black robe.

Time to be an all Kingly prick.

xXXXXXxxxxxXXXX

Roxas fidgeted nervously at the news that the King would be down there soon.

The blonde didn't exactly have a joyful awakening. He was found by soldiers who roughly dragged him to the castle, and shackled him. Then sometime during it, Arthur and Luxord took the blonde off the soldier's hands and brought Roxas to a so called 'meeting room'. At least the blonde was able to dump his stolen book bag he packed in the bushes before anyone noticed it.

The only thing Roxas was only anxious for was answers. What happened at the fight? And what happened to Sora?

The blonde's hands gripped his own trousers tight, his head hung low, and he clenched his teeth together.

A deathly silence covered the room as the two Generals, and Roxas sat gloomily.

"Roxas," Luxord spoke up. But the blonde didn't look up, "It will be ok," Arthur finished for Luxord. Roxas severely doubted it. "Roxas" Luxord barked. The youngest blonde's eyes shot up to look to Luxord.

"You're a soldier now, might as well act like one and take the consequences for your actions," the man stated. Roxas's eyes narrowed, "I lost the fight, that's why you killed Sora. So I am not a soldier," he bit out. Arthur raised a single dark blonde eyebrow, "We didn't kill Sora. And you did win the fight so you are a soldier now," Arthur explained.

Roxas's eyes widened and he leaned forward, closer to the rectangular shaped table, "Sora's alive?!" the youngest blonde asked unbelievably. Luxord nodded.

"But where is he? And what happened at the fight?" Roxas asked. "We shall answer your questions once our King arrives," Arthur replied.

And like he somehow knew, Axel stormed in and without a word, took the seat at the head of the table. The seat that was lined with gold.

The youngest blonde eyed the King and noticed that Axel looked completely disheveled. The redhead had bags under his eyes, his usual emerald green eyes looked hazy, his hair was a mess, and he just didn't have his usual grace. But then again Roxas didn't look too hot himself. The blonde's hair was a mess more than usual in away so it didn't look stylish, he had bags under his eyes too, his clothes were grimy and damp, dirt was smudged all over him, and his cheeks were littered with dry tears.

"Alright down to business," Axel began, crossing his arms against his chest and leaned back in his chair.

"Roxas state whatever is in your little fucking mind," Axel ordered boredly. Roxas just glared in return. But nonetheless spoke, "Where is Sora?"

"I suspect he is probably on his way to Ludunt Kingdom by now," the King answered truthfully. Roxas shot out of his chair and slammed his shackled hands down on the table, the metal chains clanking loudly, "Why is he going to the Ludunt Kingdom?!" the youngest blonde shouted.

"We had to get your brother out of here. Due to stative things," Axel answered. Roxas didn't relax and his eyes impossibly narrowed more, "What stative things? You said he would live here in the castle if I won, and I did. So why is he gone?" he growled.

Axel smirked, "Oh, so you do know you won the fight. But do you remember what happened in the fight?" the redhead asked amusedly. Axel's eyes no longer held that haziness, they turned back to their usual fiery glow. Roxas looked down to his heart, and he gripped the table harder. "Why don't you tell me?" Roxas growled. The King chuckled, "Where's the fun in that? Why don't you tell me what you believe right now?"

Roxas shook with anger. His head hurt trying to recall the memories. He couldn't just say he thought he got stabbed through the heart. They would ship him off to a loony bin. "Why does this have to be a mind game? Why can't you just tell me?" the youngest blonde asked, frustrated.

Axel's smirk broadened, "Ok, you want to know. Fine. Vanitas stabbed you through the heart during the fight. But miraculously you got back up and knocked Vanitas unconscious. The fight was supposed to be to the death but neither of you are dead so… Thus, you won the fight. And now because of you, rumors are swarming my kingdom that you are inhuman or something. I shipped Sora off to the Ludunt Kingdom because with so many powerful guests there witnessing the fight that day, they think you are some kind of secret power to harness. Sora is bait for you for them to steal, so I sent him away with Riku to a country where they don't know Sora and you are brother's and he shall be safe there. If you think about it is quite generous of me to secure his safety" Axel finished, finding the whole situation amusing.

"But our bargain was if I won that Sora would get to live here in luxury while I became a soldier," the blonde snapped. Axel nodded, "I did say that. But due to circumstances, Sora will be living in luxury at the Ludunt Kingdom," the redhead replied calmly. Roxas tore at his hair in frustration, "Due to what circumstances?! I'm not anything special; I say it was just pure luck that I survived!" Roxas snapped. "Highly doubtful," the King replied boredly. "What do you mean?" Roxas asked, raising a single delicate eyebrow. The redhead laughed darkly and reached into his pocket, he successfully found what he was looking for and slid it across the table. It came to a stop in front of the blonde. Roxas picked it up in his hands and found that it was his blue amulet. "You had no right to take this!" the blonde yelled. Axel smirked, "Coming from the person who stole those pieces of parchment from a book of mine in my own private library," the redhead noted.

Roxas's cheeks slightly flushed at being caught. The blonde completely forgot about the mysterious book in a different language that he found the day before the fight. But how did the King know about it? The blondes till wanted to know what it said, but he figured it wasn't the time to ask about it.

"Roxas Strife you are now one of my soldiers, act out of line and you shall be punished. Act out of line and Sora shall be punished too. Do what you're told and we shouldn't have a problem, don't do what you're told and Sora's safety won't be secured," Axel changed the subject. Roxas simply nodded but his eyes were still narrowed, "But what about my heart? How am I alive? And what does my amulet have anything to do with it?" the blonde asked, choosing his words carefully but the bitterness was still there. The King shrugged, "I don't know. I have theories but they don't matter, I am trying to figure it out but for now let us call it luck, as you had said before. You are an advantage however, now everyone will believe I have some secret killing machine on my hands. So you are of some advantage. By the way, you will address me as 'my King' or 'your majesty' or 'sir'. Am I understood?" Axel ordered. The blonde was about to tell the redhead to go fuck himself but he stopped himself. Roxas had to be a loyal soldier now. And every action or word he spoke affected Sora. He would have to hold his tongue. About the blue amulet though, maybe Axel knew it was enchanted. After all, the amulet protected him and Sora from the violent flames in the Kingdom of Potentia. So maybe the amulet helped him survive the fight.

Luxord and Arthur excused themselves and left the room- saying something about matters they had to attend to. Axel eyed them as they left and he let out a sigh at relief of being able to drop the act of being all serious.

"Yes your majesty," Roxas replied pleasantly while smiling, but was still glaring. Axel smiled back too but was glaring also, "Come here," the King instructed. The blonde fidgeted nervously but did as he was told; he pocketed his amulet, stood, and walked over to the redhead. He wouldnt show fear. Absolutely not.

Roxas would be the perfect servant to Axel if it meant his brother stayed safe. Even if the blonde wanted to tell the King to fuck off every single second and want to vomit every time he said 'yes your majesty'.

Roxas arrived next to the redhead and stood to the King's side. "Let me see your injuries," Axel ordered. The blonde glare hardened, "Uh sir, I'm fine-"

The redhead sighed and waved the blonde off. "I just want to check your injuries. And in private refer to me as 'Axel'. In public though you will refer to me as sir. Got it memorized?" Axel asked, tapping his own temple. The blonde nodded, "Yes sir-"

"Axel," the redhead face palmed. "Err-right, Axel," Roxas repeated.

"Are you going to let me see or not?" the redhead asked. Roxas shook his head. Axel rolled his eyes and gripped the blonde's collar, pulling Roxas down to eye level. The redhead smirked, leaned in and kissed Roxas.

The blonde blushed and pushed the King away, "What was that for?!" Roxas snapped. "You're being stubborn and I spent all night looking for you. I am in a pretty crappy mood, the least you could do as my servant would be to cheer me up. Besides you deserve some sort of punishment for running off after giving your word," Axel stated. The blonde wiped his mouth off with his sleeve, "A normal punishment would do!"

"A normal punishment is fifteen lashes," Axel's smirk broadened at seeing Roxas's skin turn ghostly pale.

"And I said I would get you to like me. Can't give you fifteen lashes, I would break my new toy!" the King noted. Roxas glared. "Oh and act like your normal self in private also. I like that feisty side of you, it amuses me," Axel added. Axel actually gave Roxas permission to say the things he wanted as long as they were in private. That came as a shock to the blonde.

"In that case, fuck off!" Roxas barked, making Axel laugh. The redhead stood from his chair and walked up to the blonde, "Aw Roxy you're too cute!"

Roxas glared, "What's with the sudden change in attitude!" Axel shrugged, "I hate being all serious and Kingly but I have to live up to the expectations of my father and follow through on my 'Kingly duties'. But around you I feel like I can be myself. It is probably why I like you so much," Axel observed.

The blonde sneered, "Lucky me."

"Yep and your even more lucky because I think I am going to make you a Knight," the redhead replied pleasantly.

Roxas blinked, "A Knight?! No, no, no, no, no. NO. I don't even want to be a soldier," Roxas replied.

Axel shrugged, "It is not really your choice. You beat Vanitas after all and he is pretty tough, so you deserve to be in a high ranking. Anyways go find Vexen-my royal advisor. Tell him I sent you, he will make sure to get you a mount."

The blonde nodded. "One more kiss and I will forget your little mishaps- meaning you running away, hurting Vanitas, causing one to many scenes, and stealing from my library. It is a pretty good deal Roxy," Axel smirked. Roxas ignored the nickname and swallowed all of his pride and shuffled closer to Axel. "Fine, one kiss," Roxas grumbled. Axel smirked delightfully and bent down to kiss the blonde. Roxas quickly brought his shackled hands up and put them in front of his mouth, making Axel kiss the blonde's hand. The King glared and gripped Roxas's shackle's chain. Axel pulled the chain back over and past his own shoulder. Roxas unwillingly was pulled forward, with his face in front of the King's, and was left with no possible way to pull away.

"Shackles got to be good for something I guess," Axel laughed and leaned down and kissed Roxas. The blonde's cheeks burned red. The redhead's mouth opened and his tongue poked at the blonde's lips for entrance but Roxas wasn't having any of it. The blonde didn't kiss back at all and instead pressed his lips together tight. The King frowned into the kiss.

Axel sneakily ran his other hand down the inner part of the blonde's left thigh. The blonde squeaked, "Mmf!" Roxas's mouth opened to yell at the King but Axel took it as his chance and slipped his tongue into the blonde's mouth. Roxas's tongue tried to push the redhead's out but it didn't work when the King's tongue over powered him.

The King pulled back from the kiss, satisfied. The redhead loved how Roxas looked so cute all frustrated. "First you threaten me then you hit on me?!" Roxas fumed. Axel laughed, "Roxy! You know I won't actually hurt you or your brother unless you do something really bad. So just don't do anything bad. And don't make me mad, because I do have a temper" Axel replied simply, shrugging.

"But if you do something just a little bad I will make you sleep in my bedroom for a week. Oo that's a good idea!" Axel cheered. "No way in hell," Roxas glared and yanked away from the King, bringing the chain out of Axel's grip.

The blonde cleared his throat, "So, Sora is ok?" Roxas asked, just to clarify. Axel rolled his eyes, "He is perfectly safe. Besides I probably will never hurt him, he is just the only thing I have hanging over your head so you don't run away. I won't hurt him because I am trying to get you to like me, not hate me even more," the King replied. "I don't hate you," Roxas replied. Axel blinked, "You don't?" the King inquired.

"No. If you didn't hurt Sora then I'm ok. But I still don't exactly don't know how I feel about you, but it's not hate. You're just a little confusing because one minute you're nice and the next you're pissed at me," Roxas answered. Axel smiled, "So what I'm hearing is I have a chance?" he asked. The blonde rolled his eyes. The redhead laughed,

"Alright then, get going. Come find me afterwards. Now maybe I can go catch some Z's and when I wake up maybe I will be in a better mood," Axel ordered. Roxas nodded and took to leave.

"You're lucky that I Iike you and love that ass of yours" Axel sported his signature smirk. Roxas felt butterflies in his stomach and his cheeks flared, he nodded, and left. It was hard for the blonde to figure the King out.

XXXXXxxXXXXxXXx

Finding Vexen was actually surprisingly easy. After asking random people around the castle of the whereabouts of Vexen, he found Vexen's bedroom. Roxas however did not like it that every time he asked someone and walked away they would turn around and start whispering about him. It made him feel exposed.

The blonde arrived at the so called 'Vexen's' bed chambers door. He knocked and no answer came. The door however opened on its own with a slight creak.

The blonde cautiously stepped into the room. "Hello!" he called. But the blonde found the room was empty.

Roxas walked into another room through a door into what looked to be a study. The blonde looked to a desk that lay out in the open. Roxas couldn't help but be curious and walk over to the letter. The blonde didn't even pick up the letter that was newly written. The ink looked still fresh and wet, and the quill sat next to it. Put two and two together and you figure out that it was newly written.

Roxas looked at the writing, it read.

_Thank you my liege for sending the letter. I will take action on our agreement as soon as possible. That boy has awakened; I will look more into his case before I kill the idiot King. I even was able to schedule some alone time with the boy so I can try and get him to come to our side willingly. And I already have the perfect plan._

_Sincerely,_

_V-_

Roxas blinked at the letter. Whoever wrote it- were they talking about him? And were they talking about Axel? What fool would even leave a letter of that sort out in the open like that?

The blonde had to warn the King- "Who is in here?" a voice snarled from the other room.

Roxas quickly jumped away from the letter and walked out to the bedroom area. The blonde was met with a tall man. The man just had a sinister look to him, acid green eyes, long bleached blonde hair, and just an overall creepy air about him.

The man's eyes narrowed at seeing him, "What are you doing in here?" he sneered. "Uh the King told me to seek out a man called 'Vexen'. I was told that these were his quarters so I thought I would find him here. Do you know him?" Roxas asked, glaring at the unkind man.

The man blinked, "Oh! Yes I am Vexen, and you must be Roxas, am I correct?" the man known as 'Vexen' inquired. Roxas nodded.

Vexen nodded too, "Yes, King Axel has already instructed me to get you a mount. Oh and may I know what you were doing in my study?" Vexen asked, raising an eyebrow. The younger blonde got nervous at the question, "Oh- I was just looking for you. I thought you might be in there so I looked," Roxas explained. Vexen nodded. He knew the boy had seen the letter and he would have to do something about it before Roxas blabbed. After all, Ansem said he would work on occupying Roxas's brother.

xxXXXXXXxxxx

**(Back to Sora, that same day)**

The ship was destroyed. The Kingdom of Gelus had attacked. They moved their first pawn in the game of war.

Sora opened his eyes and all he saw was blue. Then when he became more focused he noticed he was laying on a piece of wood from the ship they were on, in the middle of the ocean.

They're ship was destroyed and all that was left of it was the discarded pieces of wood in the sea. Along with the lifeless bodies of the crew.

The brunette panicked, "Riku!" he shouted. "Sora, I'm right here," a voice spoke next to him. He turned his head to the right and saw that Riku was lying right next to him. The brunette sat up and scooted closer to Riku. Sora tugged at his hair, "Riku what are we going to do?" Sora panicked.

Riku pinched the bridge of his nose and sat up too. The only reason they weren't dead along with the other crew members was because they abandoned ship at the right time. Sora passed out from the explosions, but the silverette managed to hide them both out of sight from the Gelus ship that was looking for survivors. The rest was a blur, and Riku's ears were still ringing from the bombs.

"I don't know Sora. I figure we'll just have to wait until we wind up somewhere," Riku grumbled. "But that could take weeks!" Sora cried.

"I know."

xxxXXXXXXXxxxx

"Why are we in a forest?" Roxas asked. Vexen rolled his eyes at the boy. "This specific forest holds many great beasts waiting to be tamed. You have your sword and I presume you know how to use it. Especially since you fought and won against Vanitas. Anyways, the castle uses this particular forest as a way to find mounts. You just have to find a beast that fits your fancy and tame it. Taming a beast is no easy task but if you were to find a Pegasus or a Phoenix then it is easier. Special different kinds of beast have telepathic abilities. Meaning some species can hear your thoughts and feelings. They can't talk to you though, that is only with really rare kinds of beast," Vexen explained. Roxas nodded as he pushed branches out of the way as he followed.

"This may take a while to find a beast appropriate for you, it is sort of like hunting,"

Vexen elaborated. The younger blonde simply nodded again.

Vexen then stopped behind some bushes and Roxas followed suit to crouching behind the shrubbery too.

Hours passed and absolutely nothing appeared. Early morning turned into early afternoon. Vexen only wanted that job to take the younger blonde out beast hunting so he could find out more but his attempt was proving fruitless.

Roxas was about to fall asleep when they heard movement. Vexen nudged Roxas and the younger blonde woke up, "Huh?"

"Sh! Look," Vexen snapped, looking ahead through the bush. Roxas obliged and looked ahead through the leaves.

And then he saw it through the leaves, open in the middle of the meadow stood a beautiful, courageous beast. "Now Roxas take out your sword and fight it off," Vexen instructed. But the younger blonde shook his head; he didn't want to hurt it.

The little blonde stood up and the beast immediately looked to him and snapped its jaws. Roxas never saw any animal like it. It was some sort of hybrid. It was a giant white tiger with black stripes, the eyes a cold blue. The only thing different about it was the fact that it had large black angel wings coming out from its shoulder blades. Roxas was afraid by it but awe struck at the same time.

Roxas cautiously walked forward and the beast growled loudly and threatened to pounce. The blonde took a deep breath and grabbed the handle of his sword. The beast growled more violently and let out a loud roar. It took all Roxas's courage to withdraw the blade, and then throw it to the ground. The beast eyed the sword on the ground and then the defenseless blonde boy.

"Are you mad?!" Vexen snapped from behind the bushes. Roxas shook his head and slowly outstretched his hand slowly, his eyes full of care. The beast gnashed its teeth at him and roared threateningly. Roxas pushed his luck though and outstretched his hand even farther. The animal snorted and the air hit the blonde's hand.

"Hey, it's ok," Roxas soothed the beast. The tiger hybrid pawed the ground for a bit, ready to attack. "I'm not going to hurt you," the blonde promised, putting his hand right in front of the tiger's nose. It inhaled his scent and as it did so, it calmed down a smidge. Roxas laughed lightly and slightly patted the tiger's forehead. "It's ok," Roxas said again in the sweetest and most loving tone he could muster. Animals don't understand words, they understand tone. But Roxas didn't really believe in that. He believed that animals could understand words and tone. The blonde honestly loved animals. And this hybrid was amazing.

The creatures light blue eyes widened slightly but then it calmed and sat down. Roxas chuckled and started to pet it behind the ears. The tiger loved it and started swishing its tail back and forth on the ground, and leaning its head into Roxas's touch.

Vexen stood watching from the bushes in shock. How the hell did an imbecile kid tame a fucking tiger? "So how do I get it to be my mount?" the younger blonde asked.

"You try to establish a special telepathic linked connection. You sort of just know if the beast accepts you," Vexen answered, still eyeing the beast warily. Roxas nodded and looked into the beast eyes, "Will you be my mount? You could live in the stables with other animals and you can eat all the steaks and other good stuff you want. And of course no one would hurt you. So what do you say?" Roxas inquired. The tiger calmed down and stared back into Roxas's deep sapphire blue eyes. It noticed something like a blue blaze shine in Roxas's eyes. The tiger's eyes widened at what it saw, it immediately bowed down and let the link come together. There was no mistaking that blue.

The blonde could feel the tiger's feelings in his own heart. It felt loyal to him. Roxas smiled and laughed lightly, "How about I call you Sebastian? I'm assuming you're a boy anyways…," the blonde trailed off. Roxas could tell the tiger was happy with that name through the way it acted and the way it felt in his heart, which was joyful. The blonde laughed and cautiously climbed onto the tiger's back. Sebastian showed no sign of minding that the blonde climbed onto his back so Roxas swung his leg around the other side and straddled the beast's back. He lightly grasped the fur of the tiger's back. Sebastian stood up on four legs and walked towards Vexen with Roxas on his back. Vexen immediately coward and held up his hands in defense, "Get away from me!" Vexen snapped at the tiger. Roxas smirked at Vexen's cowardness. The blonde after all did not trust the older man one bit. After seeing that letter about killing an 'idiot King' and 'a boy who just awakened', and the letter was signed 'V' and Vexen's name just so happened to start with a 'V'. Roxas would warn Axel when he got back to the castle. Then again the young blonde didn't really like sticking his nose in other people's business; the blonde would just sneak into Vexen's room and find out what he needed as proof. But about the 'boy awakening' it was probably surely about him. Who else would it be about? And who was the letter to? So many questions…

Roxas would just have to keep an eye on Vexen for a while instead of jumping to conclusions.

"Would you mind picking up my sword for me?" the young blonde asked, pointing to his sword that lay on the grassy ground. Vexen looked into Roxas's amused eyes and then into the tiger's untrusting eyes. The older blonde gulped at seeing Sebastian bare his teeth threateningly. Vexen obliged and retrieved the boy's sword from the ground. Vexen tried his best smile but it came out gross and creepy looking. Roxas snatched his sword from the man and sheathed it.

Vexen huffed, turned on his heels and stalked back the way they came. Roxas sneered at the man and looked at Sebastian's big midnight black wings. The boy blinked, he wondered…

As if Sebastian knew exactly what Roxas was thinking about (which he did), he batted its wings and began to raise high in the air. Roxas pushed his chest down to the beast's neck while still straddling the beast's back. His arms found their way around Sebastian's neck. His arms didn't wrap around all the way but the came close and he held on tight and he peeked to the ground below them.

The blonde wanted to go higher and Sebastian complied and rose higher into the orange-ish sky. Vexen looked up to the boy in disbelief.

Roxas smiled wide and waved, "Bye Vexen! Thanks!" Roxas called and smirked at Vexen's annoyance.

Before the man could reply- Roxas told Sebastian in his mind to go faster and to the castle.

The beast did as he was told and beat his black wings wildly and they raced forward as fast as sonic speed. Roxas loved the rush.

xxxXXXXXXXXxxxx

Eventually they arrived back to the dark grey cobblestoned castle on top of the large green hill. Roxas told Sebastian to go down and the beast did. The tiger walked casually up to the castle's gates with the blonde on his back.

As they approached the gates soldiers from the watch tower eyed them cautiously. As they got closer to the gates, someone must have recognized Roxas because they opened the gates. The blonde nodded his head to them slightly and kept going forward and through the gates on the walking tiger.

As they walked the blonde noticed the stares and it made him and Sebastian uneasy. He didn't know if they were staring at him because he was on top of a white tiger with black angel wings or if it was because he was alive after being stabbed through his most vital organ. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

Roxas sighed and told Sebastian to run. The beast was happy to oblige- Sebastian didn't like the stares either. They ran- more of jogged to the back of the castle. The blonde had no idea where the stables were but he presumed Hayner would probably know, seeing as how the lighter blonde was given lots of jobs to do of that kind.

**xxxXXXXxxxx**

**A/N: Took me for fucking ever to write! I re wrote this three times and at one time had a mental break down. but I hope you liked this. The story is finally moving forward again. But, and I mean giant butts like Xaldin sized butts (I love Demyx time) anyways but, this story will have a bunch of like little side things to show you the countries really are at war and dying. And that pretty much everyone is a fiend that only cares about them self. But maybe a certain blonde could change that! :D And this was 7,104 words, fuck my life.**

**I say 'but' a lot...Oh well! Any who hope you liked this!**

**Ern Estine 13624: Thanks! :D**

**Review please! Even if it's a guest review it still makes me happy! So review. It makes me a happy clam fish and makes me update a lot faster.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I read an awesome book that described everything beautifully and everything was just so many different kinds of words that I haven't even thought about using. So I am going to try and make this story more detailed. Like I have said before I should have wrote this story later when I get better skills. Right now I am still experimenting. But I will try my best. And yes, Roxas's tiger 'Sebastian' is named after Sebastian from Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji). I was thinking about it and my friend really loves Black Butler and I was trying to think of a name that means courageous, loyal, and can still be cute. So I thought of Sebastian and I was like "yep that's the name I'm using". It made my friend happy.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own the characters unless I made them up. I own this plot though however.**

**Warning: SHOUTA. Some OC (very little). Lemons and Limes in the future. YAOI don't like don't read please. Man I love yaoi...Anyways rated M for sexual scenes, cursing, alcohol, and violent fighting scenes.**

**Enjoy!**

Roxas knocked on the black smith's metal door. No answer came so he knocked harder.

The door then opened and Malcolm appeared in the doorway, "Roxas, what can I do ya for?" the blackett asked. "Is Hayner here?" the blonde asked. Malcolm nodded, "Yeah, lemme go get him," Malcolm replied and then he disappeared into his shop. The man didn't even bother asking if the rumors were true.

Roxas sighed and looked to his new tiger that was hiding behind a pillar away from where anyone else could see him. Sebastian was currently trying to catch a butterfly with his paw; the blonde chuckled at the silliness.

Then he heard footsteps getting closer and Hayner appeared in the doorway. The lighter haired blonde must have just woken up because his hair was pointing in all different directions, he was yawning with his eyes closed, and rubbing the back of his head groggily.

"What do ya want?" Hayner asked, yawning loudly with his eyes still closed. Roxas smirked, "Hayner," he said.

The boy opened his eyes and they came into focus on the teen in front of him with golden blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. "Roxas? Roxas!" Hayner cheered happily and brought the blue-eyed blonde into a one armed hug. Roxas hugged back. "Dude! Are you alright?" Hayner asked.

The blue-eyed blonde raised a single dark blonde eyebrow, "What do you mean 'are you alright?" he asked, confused. The brown-eyed blonde pulled back from the hug. "You got stabbed through the fucking heart! I saw it! So you got to be kidding me," Hayner explained. Roxas blinked, "Oh, that. Well I think I'm ok. My heart still functions properly but I get a bit out of breath when running," Roxas mumbled, looking to down to his chest while subconsciously rubbing his chest with his right hand. Hayner's eyebrows knitted together, "You're telling me, that you got stabbed and that you are completely ok?" the brown-eyed blonde asked exasperatedly. The blue-eyed blonde nodded, "I think it had something to do with my father's amulet but other than that I don't know how I'm living. Axe- King Axel said he has theories but-" Roxas explained, rubbing his blue amulet that hung around his neck between his pointer finger and thumb, but Hayner cut him off. "WAIT. You already spoke to the King and you still have your head in tact?" Hayner asked unbelievably. Roxas nodded, "Yeah. Why?" he asked perplexed.

The brown-eyed blonde gaped, "You're joking' right? Axel sent out search parties looking for you all over the place last night! From what I heard you caused a riot in the hospital wing and ran away. After no one could find you I thought you had left, I mean I was kind of sad and stuff that you left me but, it didn't really matter. I was happy you got out because of how mad the King was last night; I thought for sure if he found you that he would have killed you. And now you got caught and you're still alive! Do you have something about you that prevents death or what?" Hayner asked. The blue-eyed blonde shrugged. Roxas didn't think he caused that much trouble, but evidently he did. "So where did you hide anyways? And why did ya run?" Hayner inquired. "Huh? Oh. I didn't really hide. I ran away because I was worried about Sora, he wasn't there when I woke up so that really worried me. I know that he would only leave my side if he was dragged away. I thought I had lost the fight, so I thought they had killed him. I got really upset and set off to find him. I ended up in the dungeons and I jumped to conclusions that they killed him. So I kind of just stayed in the dungeons and fell asleep in the cell. Some soldiers found me and then took me to the King," Roxas answered.

Hayner frowned, "Man, no one tells me nothing. I mean I knew you were alive and running around and that you got found but I didn't know all the details. So what did happen to Sora?" Hayner asked worriedly, twiddling his thumbs. He was nervous to hear the truth.

"He got sent to the Ludunt Kingdom. I'm still not sure why, but he is ok. King Axel is letting me off easy, and I'm a soldier now," Roxas elaborated. And there was no way in hell that the blue-eyed blonde was going to mention that the only reason he wasn't in trouble was because he kissed Axel.

Hayner nodded, "Well I'm glad you're not dead. But why did ya come here? Or do you not have a reason and just wanted to see your best friend?" Hayner smiled cheekily. Roxas snorted, "Actually I got myself a mount, I was wondering if you could show me where the stables are?" Roxas asked. The brown-eyed blonde rocked back and forth on his heels, "Of course I can show you where the stables are! But where's your mount?" Hayner asked excitedly.

Roxas didn't answer just walked up the steps to the grounds, Hayner followed him. The blue-eyed blonde stood and then calmly called, "Sebastian."

The tiger's head peaked out from behind the pillars and then came out completely from the pillars, revealing himself in all of his glory.

"Holy hell, I've never seen one quite like this" Hayner complimented, his eyes the size of dinner plates. Roxas smirked, "I know. So will you show me to the stables now?" the blue-eyed blonde requested. The brown-eyed blonde nodded.

Hayner lead the way and Roxas and Sebastian followed behind. Except the blonde wasn't riding his tiger, just walking next to him. "So where did you find 'Sebastian', I think that's what you called it. Right?" Hayner inquired. "Yeah, his name is Sebastian. I found him in some forest Vexen took me to," Roxas replied. Hayner scrunched up his nose in distaste, "I hate Vexen. I swear that guy has a stick shoved up his ass."

Roxas laughed at his friend's comment as they approached the wooden stables. Hayner dug into his pocket and pulled out a rusted key and unlocked the door to the stables. As soon as they walked in their noses were assaulted with the dreadful smell of manure. Roxas gagged but Hayner seemed completely used to the smell.

The brown-eyed blonde walked to one of the stable doors and opened it, inside was fresh yellow hay, meat for food, crimson blankets, and plenty of clean drinking water. Sebastian voluntarily walked straight into the stable without much hesitation, and curled up into a ball. Roxas smirked; he reached down and retrieved the ruby blanket. He shook it out a couple times then draped it over the tiger. Sebastian was nestled up and comfortable so Hayner closed and locked the gate.

"So, what do you have to do now? Or can you go back to Malcolm's place with me?" Hayner inquired, leaning on the stable gate. Roxas pondered over the question. Then he remembered, "Uh, no I can't. Luxord wants to see me," the blue-eyed blonde replied. It was a lie. The General didn't want to see Roxas, the King did. But the blue-eyed blonde wasn't going to tell his friend that. The brown-eyed blonde nodded in understanding, "Well better get going then. Don't want to keep Luxord waiting," Hayner smiled wide. The blonde nodded and ran out of the stables.

He sprinted down some small hills, across the grounds, and to the grand front doors. Roxas didn't even bother to knock as he panted from his run. He gripped his chest where his heart was hammering in his ribcage. The blonde's heart still ached.

Roxas's breathing steadied and he pushed open the grand metal midnight colored doors. They swung open and the blonde walked in confidently like he belonged there. No one seemed to be in the arrival hall though. So Roxas used that to his advantage and dashed down the clad in crimson hallways.

The blonde still didn't know his way around the entire castle but he guessed if he just climbed his way all the way to the thirteenth floor and up to the tower then he should be fine.

XXXXXXxxxxxXXXXXx

He made it. Roxas collapsed at the top of the tower's stairs. All thirteen floors of running.

The blonde lay on his back at the foot of the King's door and panted erratically. "Damn castle needs a bloody elevator," Roxas managed to groan as he rolled over, sat, and stood. He dusted off his trousers and tried to calm his breathing. His heart hurt more than it had beforehand. Roxas figured the organ wasn't completely healed.

Once his breathing was even he knocked on the door. Roxas remembered what happened last time he was in the King's bed chambers. And he wasn't looking for a repeat.

No answer came. Roxas knocked again and then a voice spoke, "Come in."

Pushing the door open was a terrible mistake. Because when the door opened it revealed Axel. The redhead probably had just taken a bath or shower, because the King was only wearing a single black towel that hung loosely around his hips, his hair was wet and slightly droopy but still spiky, and his body had beads of water trailing down. The blonde quickly slapped his right hand over his eyes as he turned the color of pink cotton candy.

Upon seeing Roxas, Axel laughed. "You going to come in or continue to turn the color of a cherry?"

Roxas sucked in his breath and shuffled into the room with a hand still clasped firmly over his eyes. Axel rolled his eyes even though the blonde couldn't see it, "Does me being just in a towel bother you that much?" the redhead asked, amused. Roxas decided to take the logical approach so Axel wouldn't make fun of him too much. "I just think it's not appropriate for me to be seeing you like this. It's not appropriate for any servant to see their King like that unless they are a maid helping you get clothed," Roxas answered. Even the blonde scrunched up his nose at his own words. He didn't like seeming so proper.

Laughing, the King strode over to him, "Wow thank you for being a loyal servant. Maybe I should make you a maid. Then I could be naked around you and you could dress me," Axel said sarcastically and highly amused. The blonde turned beat red, "No that's ok. I'm fine really- so what did you want to see me about?" Roxas babbled, hurriedly changing the subject.

"I wanted to see you because I took the liberty of ordering you some clothes that actually fit you. On the day of the ball you were measured so it saves time, I ordered the clothes days ago and they have arrived finally. Also you haven't eaten anything and I wanted to go over my plans for you and your position, and ask you some questions" Axel explained. Roxas nodded, "Should I take a seat or stand?" he inquired.

"Come in but don't look now I'm naked," the King joked, snickering. Shuffling farther into the room cautiously, Roxas made sure to keep his hand firmly over his eyes.

Aimlessly he walked until an edge of something soft hit his knees and he fell forward. It was a short fall and when he landed he was on a plush surface and he figured it was the King's bed. However, Roxas made no sign that he was going to move. After climbing thirteen floors and a large tower, he was exhausted. His heart needed a break. Axel watched a goofy smile appear on the blonde's face as the boy relished in the bed's comfort. Honestly Roxas didn't care if the King was looking at him or not. After sleeping in the rough freezing dungeons he wanted something to sleep on that was soft. And the King's bed felt like a cloud and filled his nose with the smell of cinnamon and smoke. It actually comforted him. Roxas stretched out his aching muscles and limbs and made an 'x' with his body as he lay on his stomach. Wordlessly, Axel dropped his towel which crumpled to the floor; this perked the blonde's attention. The redhead plopped on the bed, next to Roxas to the left. He lay on his stomach too but with his arms crossed with his left cheek resting on his arms. "Roxxxxy," the King drawled out, cooing. "Get your damn towel back on and if you touch me I will chop it off," the blonde threatened, trying to sound pissed the best he could. And 'it' was being Axel's dick.

Humming the King pretended to ponder and stifled his building laughter, "Hmm, I don't know it's quite freeing." Roxas groaned, "Axel."

He cracked, Axel broke out into fits of laughter but the blonde didn't get it. So the redhead decided to make a snide comment to enlighten the boy, "Mhm Roxas say my name just like that '_Oh Axel! Mmm! Ah!_" the redhead pretended to be the blonde, then cracked up, clutching his gut. The blonde's hands found his face and covered it completely, embarrassed. Roxas shook his head side to side while blushing feverishly. Axel calmed down some and he started to play with Roxas's hair while still letting out a few chuckles. Looping the golden locks around his pointer finger, the King decided to have some fun. "Roxxaass," the redhead purred. Still having his eyes closed, the blonde glared into his eye lids. Frowning, Axel threatened, "I will hug you if you don't open your eyes."

The blonde couldn't decide what was worse. Being hugged by a naked man or seeing a naked man. Obviously he couldn't decide which was worse, so he rolled away. After two rolls to the right, he fell onto the fluffy ground. "Roxasss," the King purred again. "Fuck off," Roxas snapped. The redhead laughed, "I would like to _get _the fuck off with you but you won't let me." Grumbling incoherently, the blonde sat up, crossing his legs. And that's when he heard movement and then felt warmth near his back. It felt like how the warmth of a fire would feel. Then arms wrapped around him from behind and the blonde figured out the warmth was radiating off of Axel. Quickly Roxas wrenched away from the bare body hugging him, "Get off you pervert!"

Laughing, Axel quickly grabbed the blonde and pulled him back. The redhead carefully sat Roxas on the edge of his outer right thigh so the boy wasn't touching anything that would probably scar him for life. The King pressed his palm over Roxas's eyes and tilted the blonde's head back so his neck craned back and the back of his head lay on his right shoulder. Roxas of course turned a dangerous shade of red.

"Please get some clothes on."

"'Please', what?"

"Please get your clothes on _your majesty._"

"Nope, not good enough. I asked you to call me it before. Hopefully you remember," Axel laughed, brushing his lips lightly against Roxas's neck. The blonde shivered.

"Please get your clothes on your royal hotness," the blonde snapped. The redhead smirked and ran his hand through the honey locks. "Mm since you asked so nicely," Axel replied. He pushed Roxas off and stood to find clothes. As soon as the King was gone, Roxas blindly reached around to find the bed. Once he found it he crawled back up to it and lay comfortably.

Moments passed and the blonde could of sworn he fell asleep but when he heard Axel re approaching he came out of his daze. He sat up and clamped his palms over his eyes. "You decent?" the blonde inquired, cautiously. Axel snickered, "Yes, you can look now."

But Roxas didn't believe him so he kept his hands firmly over his eyes. The King rolled his eyes and walked over to the blonde. He grabbed Roxas's wrist and pried the boy's hands off of his eyes. But Roxas kept his eyes closed still. Looking at the blonde with a deadpanned look, Axel hatched an idea. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the blonde's plump pink ones. Because of this action, the blonde's eyes shot open and he lurched backwards away from the King. When he did this he saw that Axel was indeed dressed in black jeans, with a long sleeved black cotton button up shirt. Roxas calmed at seeing this.

"You going to keep acting squeamish or are we going to get down to business?" Axel asked, slightly irked. Roxas glared, "As if it's my fault. Maybe if you stop touching me I would be less 'squeamish'."

Axel scoffed, "You seemed to like Namine touching you at the ball." Roxas gaped, "I did not! And she was only touching my shoulders, not kissing me like a certain redhead," the blonde bit back. Axel rolled his eyes. In return Roxas stuck out his tongue. The King couldn't help but smile at the childish gesture. "Alright fine whatever. Now I ordered some food for you because I know you haven't eaten. In the dining hall they said you are rather fond of chicken so I just got you that and some bread, fruit, and flanta juice," Axel explained. Roxas blinked, "You didn't have to do all that."

"Eh, too bad."

Axel walked away into another branch off room that looked to be a study and came back in with a tray of food while Roxas fiddled with the raven and ruby colored comforter of the bed. The King handed over the tray and the blonde looked to the food in awe. The chicken was well cooked and was a nice crisp brown, golden brown rolls, and a separate bowl filled with fruit. Eyeing the food, Roxas's mouth watered. Smirking, Axel pointed to the writing desk near the corner. He compiled and carried his food over to the desk and sat in the midnight black leather chair. The redhead pulled up a crimson red leather seat up to the desk and sat across from the blonde, sitting down the flanta juice that was in a crystal goblet in front of Roxas. The blonde didn't even care about table manners, he just digged in. He could even picture Arthur and Luxord cringing after they went through all the trouble of teaching him good table manners.

"So, I have made my choice and I will make you a Knight, and no you don't get a say. You beat a Knight so you should take the same position as one," Axel began. Roxas groaned as he ate his cooked meat, "Nextly, you have to do whatever Arthur and Luxord direct you to do, they're the only other people higher up than you in the ranks. Now, sleeping arrangements. There is a place where soldiers sleep but I would like you to stay up here with me." Roxas choked, and coughed, "Uh, no thanks your majesty." The King rolled his eyes, "Call me Axel in private Roxy. So fine, you're sleeping arrangements are that you will have a room of your own in the soldier's quarters. That friend Hayner of yours will be up here shortly to escort you down there. Also I would like you to come up here every night for dinner, no buts." 

"But I don't want to be up here, every time I come up here I get molested," Roxas whined. The redhead sighed, "I said no but's. Anyways you will work from seven in the morning till ten at night. If Luxord or Arthur needs you to stay longer for patrol then you will. Nextly, you will be served three meals a day. Breakfast starts at six thirty in the soldier's dining hall. Lunch is not always solid on happening. But if you get lunch it is usually served around the training yard by the cooks, but don't count on it. Dinner will be up here with me at six-thirty. I have already asked Luxord about it and he said it's ok if you gone up here with me for an hour at most," Axel finished. The blonde nodded, it sounded like a good deal to him. As he kept eating, Axel boredly kept snapping his pointer finger and thumb. Little flames appeared around his thumb and finger as he did so. Roxas stopped eating and eyed the flames, "How do you do that?" he asked. Axel blinked, "What? Make fire? Well it comes to me naturally but for other people you have to learn."

"How do you learn?" the blonde inquired. The King shrugged, flicking off the flame, "You just kind of do. Why, do you want to learn?" Axel asked, curiously. Roxas mulled it over, "I don't know, I just think it's cool."

"Hm, possibly in the future when you see your brother again I can ask Merlin from the Ludunt Kingdom to come down here, he is the best wizard around," Axel replied. Nodding, the blonde continued to eat. "So, have you ever heard of or know what the Hyacintho Divus is?" the redhead investigated, asking carefully. Roxas thought about, "Sounds familiar but I don't recall it. Why? - wait. I remember it being in that book I found in your library. What is it?" the blonde asked. The King shook his head, "It's nothing. Anyways did you find your mount all right?" he quickly changed the subject. The blonde found it odd. But Roxas figured he would just ask about it later.

Roxas nodded, "Mhm. I named my mount Sebastian. Oh and what's with Vexen? And what does he do?" Roxas asked. He was still going to investigate about Vexen.

Axel sighed, "Vexen is my royal advisor, and all my major decisions that affect the Kingdom go by him first. He always seems like he had a giant stick up his ass." 

"Couldn't have said it better."

Then they both heard a knock at the door. Axel sighed again, "Come in."

The door opened and revealed Hayner standing in the doorway, "Ah, sir," Hayner bowed, "You asked me to show Roxas to the sleeping quarters-"

Axel rolled his eyes at the formalness, "So I did," the redhead's eyes turned to the blonde who was shoveling down as much of the good food as possible until he had to be dragged away from it. "Take your leave Blondie, your new clothes and uniform are over there," the King ordered him, pointing to a sofa. The blue-eyed blonde frowned and looked to his half-finished plate but decided he shouldn't argue. Roxas nodded and stood from his seat and pushed in his chair. The blonde strode over to the sofa and grabbed the pile of clothes, shoes, and some heavier armor, and then walked over to Hayner and the brown-eyed blonde turned on his heels and headed down the stairs expecting the other blonde to immediately follow.

"Roxas," the King spoke, getting the blonde's attention. Roxas turned around to see Axel wink at him. The blonde turned back around and ran after his friend Hayner down the stairs, leaving the redhead alone by himself.

The blonde ran down the steps as fast as he could, trying not to slip. "Hayner wait up!" he called. His friend turned around to see him running after him. The brown-eyed blonde's eyes lit up, "Oh sorry, I thought you were right behind me."

Roxas caught up and they walked down the stairs side by side. "Wow, the King must be really nice if he gave you food, and personally gave you clothes," Hayner remarked, surprised.

"I think it's the only way he gets away with molesting me without me chopping his dick off," Roxas grumbled. The other blonde didn't quite hear what his friend had said, "What?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, ok. Hey I thought you said you had to see Luxord."

"I did, but he told me to go see Axel," Roxas lied.

"Oh."

xxXXXXxxxxxXXXxxx

Hayner had lead them down to the lower levels of the castle, out to the grounds by the east end, and to a separate large ashy grey building with four floors and was made out of the same material as the castle. While they were outside, Roxas discovered it was indeed late at night, it was pitch black outside. There were gates around the building and big heavy metal doors at the entrance. When they walked in Roxas discovered that it looked like a maze and was cleaner than expected. There were many hallways that had doors everywhere that were numbered.

"You're bunking with me and we live in room eight-thirteen. The higher the rank you are the more quality of the room you get. If you are a General or Knight you have a room on the first couple floors and the rooms are similar to the castle's guest rooms. But if you're a lousy rank like me or a soldier like you, your room then sucks, is on the top floor, and isn't very clean. And our bathroom is outside, so I recommend you go before bed, and showers are outside too" Hayner explained. Roxas nodded.

The lighter blonde led them up to the top floor and to a room labeled '813'. Hayner gave him a spare key and when Roxas unlocked the door, the room actually wasn't that bad.

The room was a small square; it had moldy short maroon carpet that stunk up the room, two maroon beds, one bed in the far left corner, and the other bed in the far right corner. A oak night stand laid in the middle of the two beds, the night stand had two lit candles on it and a pack of matches, the walls were a gross beige color, two brown leather trunks laid at the foot of each bed, a fireplace was inserted in the right wall, and then a small window was above the two beds. Overall it reminded Roxas of home, except for all the maroon.

"Luxord stopped by and gave me your sword and leather armor. I put it in your trunk, you got the left side of the room," Hayner said, walking over to his bed on the right and plopped on it. Roxas nodded and walked over to his own trunk. He kneeled down in front of it and put his pile of clothes to the side. When he opened the trunk after opening the buckles, he found that his sword that was confiscated earlier by soldiers- was indeed in the trunk along with his black leather armor. Roxas took the sword out and set it on the ground. Then he picked up the brown and black boots that Axel had got him and threw them in the trunk along with other optional armor.

Lifting up the new garments, the blonde eyed them. Tan trousers, blue denim jeans, black trousers, a ruby red cotton t-shirt, midnight black t-shirt, a white t-shirt, a blue t-shirt, a brown t-shirt, a long sleeved white button up shirt, a new black cloak that was made of finer material and had no holes in it like his did, a heavy brown coat for the winter, and some belts. Roxas rather like his new wardrobe. He dug into his cloak pocket and found what he was looking for, the picture. Taking out the picture, he had a heavy heart. He looked at the picture of him and his family and he felt tears sting his eyes. But instead he put the picture in the bottom of the trunk and chose not to think about it.

Next he took off his cloak, shirt, belt, and pants. He then put the dirty clothes in the trunk also. Favoring the blue t-shirt and tan trousers- Roxas put them on. Then he looked to his new black cloak and put it on.

The blonde found that the new raven colored cloak held fonder memories than his old one that he stole. In one big pile he put away all the other clothes in the trunk and then took off his amulet and put that in the trunk as well. He closed it up and went over to his bed. Sighing he peeled away the covers and slipped under them. Hayner turned to him, "It's nice not being in here by myself in here. Gets creepy."

Roxas smiled too and then he blew out the candles. "G'night Roxas."

"Night Hayner."

xXXXXXxxxxXxx

Night fell and it became scarier as the waves became more violent.

"We're going to die out here," Sora grumbled, laying on his stomach and gripping the edge of the raft for dear life, Riku doing the same.

"No we aren't, you know why?" Riku asked.

"Why?"

"Because I see land," the silverette commented. The brunette's head shot up and saw there was indeed land. His eyes lit up and he smiled ear to ear, "We're saved!" Sora cheered. Riku sighed, "Not quite, judging by the current we will miss land by a mile if we keep going like this," he observed as the waves rocked them around like rag dolls. Sora could have cried, "How do we not miss the island then?"

"Paddle. Like now. We can't fall asleep at all, we have to swim there until we make it, if we don't we will miss it by a long shot," Riku explained, starting to paddle. Sora followed suit, "Hey Riku, what if the country isn't on good terms with the Flamma?"

"Then we lie about where we are from. If this island is Fulmen, Liquidum, or Ludunt then we are fine. If it's Tellus, Spiritus, Praestigiae, Quo, Gelus, or Luna then we are screwed. Flamma and Potentia are linked together at the bottom of the map. **(A/N: Might wanna draw this out so no confusion) **Above Flamma and Potentia is a big island that has five countries in it. Liquidum is right above Flamma across the sea. And Tellus is right above Potentia across the sea, linked to Liquidum. Right above Liquidum is Ludunt and connected to the left of Ludunt is Praestigiae, and to the left of Praestigiae is Quo. Those are the five grouped together countries on one big patch of land. To the left of the map and to the left of Liquidum and Ludunt across the sea is Spiritus by itself. To the right of Quo and Tellus across the sea is Gelus by itself as an island. To the right from Gelus across the sea is Luna by itself. And way up above Luna and across the sea by itself is Malo. Down and to the right of Malo and above Ludunt Praestigiae and Quo is two linked countries. Which are Flos and then to the left of Flos is Fulmen. Across the sea to the left of Fulmen and above Spiritus is the fallen Kingdom of Lucemspero. So judging by the current, we will most likely end up in Liquidum, Ludunt, Tellus, or Spiritus. Or Fulmen, Lucemspero, or Flos- but not likely," Riku explained, panting as he paddled.

Sora nodded; at least they wouldn't wind up in Gelus, Quo, Luna, or Malo. Those were the really bad countries.

xxXXXXXXXxx

Something hard hit his face, a pillow, "Get the fuck up! I'm not gonna get my ass whooped by Malcolm for being late because of you and I'm not letting Luxord kick your ass either for not getting up on your first day," Hayner yelled, pulling Roxas's pillow out from under him. The blue eyed blonde groaned, "I'm up," he grumbled. Unwillingly he pulled himself out of bed and stretched. "Alright, get dressed in your armor. It doesn't matter which armor you pick but you need to wear the crest," Hayner explained. Raising a single eyebrow, Roxas asked, "What crest?"

The brown-eyed blonde scoffed, "It's on your new armor that the King got you. You also need to wear your new boots, now let's go!"

Hurriedly, Roxas opened his trunk and pulled out his new black boots, his black leather armor, and found the crimson crest on the other armor and pulled it off. The crest was two straps that made and 'x' and where they intertwined was a crest that was a metal dragon holding a ruby red orb. Quickly, Roxas took off his cloak and put on his armor over his clothes he slept in, and Hayner helped him strap the armor while he put on his new boots. Once everything was on, Roxas took the crest and slipped it over his head. The two straps rested on his shoulders and crossed at the bottom of his ribcage making an 'x' and held the crest in the middle, and the straps also crossed on his back too- also making an 'x'.

He dove down and picked up his new black cloak and slipped it on. Then he retrieved his sword and strapped it over his right shoulder over all the garments and the sword laid by his left hip like a satchel. And of course Roxas put on his blue amulet around his neck then closed the trunk. "Breakfast was a while ago. It's now seven and you're late, run," Hayner told him, pushing him out the door. "What about Sebastian?" Roxas asked, worriedly. "I will feed him, it's my job. Now go!" Hayner yelled. The blonde did as he was told and ran down the dorms hallways; he dove down stairs, out the building, out of the gates, and ran across the grounds.

His boots crunched the frosted grass and the cold fall air chilled his face. The sun still hadn't risen, making things cold and dark outside.

Legs pumping, breath hitched, and heart aching- he kept sprinting

When he got to the door on the side of the castle he flung it open and ran through the hallways. Some people tried to stop him and question him but they let him go when they saw the crest on his chest.

Panting, he shoved open the courtyard doors and nearly fell into the training yard. Apparently Arthur and Luxord were making an announcement because all the soldiers were gathered around and quiet. So when Roxas stormed in, all eyes were on him.

Luxord crossed his arms over his chest, glaring, "You're late," he scolded. Roxas could think of a million excuses, but he decided that wasn't the best thing. "I know, I'm sorry Generals" the blonde apologized, trying to catch his breath. The two Generals sighed, "Because it is your first day we will let you off easy. Next time, be on time," Arthur grumbled. Roxas nodded, "Begin," Luxord directed, looking to all the gathered soldiers. The men nodded and started squabbling around to what they were supposed to do. The blonde jogged over to the Generals, "So what am I supposed to do?" he asked. Rolling his eyes, Luxord spoke, "We are too busy to go over these things with you. Xigbar!" he called. Said man with the eye patch strode over. "Yes?" he asked. "Teach Roxas here the ropes, that is all," Arthur ordered. Xigbar nodded and walked away with the little blonde in toe.

The man stopped when they got to an area that wasn't too populated. Roxas could feel the soldiers watching him and he could hear them whispering about him. He hated it.

"Do you know how to saddle a mount?" Xibar asked.

"No."

"Do you know how to fight?" 

"I would like to think so."

"Do you know how to fight in the air?"

"No."

"Ok, for today I will teach you how to saddle your mount and then we will just go over some basics of fighting, how to make bombs, how to shoot cannons if there is a threat, and some survival skills," Xigbar announced. Roxas nodded his head.

XXxxxxxxXXXXXxxxXXXxxx

"Zack! I see land," Cloud yelled to the blackett through the sound of violent rain. Zack held on the sail pole for dear life, "How can you see anything?!" he yelled as more waves crashed onto the deck. The blonde held tightly onto the wheel, "Zack, go below deck and get rid of anything unnecessary! We need to stay above the waves and it will make us faster!" the blonde ordered. The other man nodded and carefully let go of the sail and dropped down to his knees and hurriedly fumbled to get the iron door open to get below.

The black sea roared and rain came down heavier, soaking them to the bone.

Zack successfully dove into the hole and started looking for supplies they didn't need.

The sea rocked them back and forth wildly, they wouldn't last much longer. Through the pouring buckets of water it was hard for them to see anything. And on top of it all, it felt like the boat was going to flip.

The blackett appeared once again and threw up a bunch of unneeded supplies onto the deck and then threw them overboard. The boat lurched to the side and Zack fell forward, rolling across the deck to the side of the boat.

"Zack!" Cloud yelled, worriedly. The blackett tried grasping for anything at all. Then his hands closed around the net that led up to the sail, he held tight.

XXXXXxxxxXXXXx

**A/N: Not a good day to be out on the sea evidently. Everything is falling into place *laughs evilly*. Ah, I'm terrible. Mmmm coconut ice cream. Anyways I think my new update time will either be every other Sunday or every Sunday. Probably the first one. Thumbs up for naked Axel ;D**

**Love you readers! Yeah I'm looking at you, and I love you. Oh god I sound like a care bear. Any who please review; even if it is a guest review it makes me uber happy and makes me work harder. **

**Thanks! And review pwease! Review and there will be more Axel molesting Roxas!**


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